Intact Oil Quotas - 23 September, 2002

The OPEC left its current production quotas intact at a meeting in Japan. But until the war question is solved OPEC is to pump extra oil on short notice.

By deciding not to authorize any additional pumping of crude, OPEC makes it somewhat more likely that inventories will continue to fall in oil-importing countries, which in turn could lead to higher prices that would damage an already fragile global economy.

As oil traders had been expecting OPEC to leave quotas unchanged prices for October delivery fell 8 cents per barrel to $29.40 in New York trading yesterday.

OPEC members don’t believe recent warnings from oil-consuming nations that oil supplies are too low and pushing oil prices higher as a result. The reason as OPEC thinks is in fears about a possible war that had pushed up prices by $3 or $4 a barrel.

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