DUBAI, United Arab Emi-rates, March 8, (Agencies): Opec members are holding informal talks but haven’t decided whether to call an emergency meeting to address the surge in oil prices, according to Gulf oil ministers.
The 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has so far held its official output quotas unchanged, even as massive protests across the oil rich Middle East have pushed global oil prices to their highest levels since late 2008. An uprising in Opec member Libya has stoked supply concerns, increasing pressure on the producer bloc to pump more to ease prices.
Some members of the group, which supplies roughly 35 percent of the world’s oil, are holding discussions about the rise in prices, Sheik Ahmed al-Abdullah al-Sabah told reporters outside Kuwait’s parliament Tuesday.
“We are in consultation, but we have not decided which direction,” he said, without providing details of the talks or where they might lead.
Kuwait is for now sticking to its previously agreed quota levels. “We didn’t increase,” al-Sabah said.
Oil prices hovered near $104 a barrel Tuesday, down from the nearly $107 a barrel struck the previous day, crude’s highest level since Sept. 26, 2008. The rapid rise is translating into higher fuel prices.
Opec is not scheduled to meet again formally until June 8 in Vienna.

Al-Sabah said Opec member states haven’t decided whether the price increase warrants an emergency meeting to adjust the group’s output quotas. Several members of the group routinely produce more than their allotment. The temptation to cheat and pump more rises along with prices.
Iran, Opec’s No. 2 producer, currently holds Opec’s rotating presidency. Its support would likely be crucial in pulling together an emergency meeting but that could be hard to come by, said UK-based industry analyst John Hall.
“Iran probably couldn’t increase output even if it wanted to,” so it is content to let prices remain high, Hall said.
Opec has repeatedly said the spike in prices is fueled by market fear driven by speculative investors rather than a tangible shortage of supply.
Oil inventories in developed nations remain high. But traders are concerned that the unrest that has ravaged Libya will spread to other major producers, particularly Saudi Arabia, which has witnessed only a handful of small protesters so far. Pro-reform protesters are calling for wider demonstrations in Saudi Arabia this week.

On Monday, Qatar’s energy minister said there is no shortage of production or supply on global markets.
“The stocks are at a healthy level for the consumer so there is no reason to worry,” the minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, was quoted as saying by the state-run Qatar News Agency.
But al-Sada added that Opec is closely monitoring the situation and stands ready to act if needed.
“From what we know, a number of countries are happy to check the market if there is any shortage,” he said.
Libya sits atop Africa’s largest proven reserves of conventional crude, and produces about 1.5 million barrels per day. But the fighting between anti-government rebels and forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi has battered production, lowering output by more than half, according to many estimates.
Saudi Arabia, which has over 4 million barrels in spare production capacity, has been increasing its output to offset the Libya export slump.
There is no need for Opec to boost oil production because consumer worries over supply are mostly “psychological” and not based on any real shortage in the market, Iran’s Opec governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said on Tuesday.
“There is no shortage in the market. There is no need for further Opec supply,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. Iran currently holds the presidency of Opec.
“But the consumers are worried, this is pyschological,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kuwait’s Oil Minister said the Opec countries were in consultations about a potential output boost.

“I am hearing some consultations taking place between ministers, there is no concrete decision for an Opec emergency meeting,” Khatibi said.
Opec’s next scheduled meeting is in June, but the pressure on the producer group has been growing to rein in the market after s oil prices hit two-year highs due to a disruption in Libyan oil exports.
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Khatibi said he believed the oil supply lost because of the bloody unrest in Libya was around 700,000 to 800,000 bpd, but added that Opec’s current production levels were still above demand.
“February production is around 29.5 million barrels, which is higher than the demand for Opec’s crude,” he said.
Up until February, Opec’s production was showing a steady rise in response to recovering world demand and higher oil prices. But last month, the crisis in Libya has cut the group’s output to 29.43 million bpd from a two-hear high of 29.63 million bpd in January.
“Consumers are worried, but this is a psychological effect. They might prefer to buy more oil....What you see is not real demand,” he said, adding that the oil stocks remained high.