Oil cartel OPEC will probably leave output quotas unchanged at a policy meeting this week and keep pumping as much crude as it can to ease market fears of a shortage, OPEC President Edmund Daukoru said.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls about half of world oil exports, is due to meet in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Thursday against the backdrop of world prices near record levels above $70 per barrel.
Asked if OPEC would alter its 28 million barrel-per-day (bpd) ceiling, Daukoru told Reuters by telephone:
"I don't see it. We will just free-ride. We will all do the best we can within our capacities without formally announcing unrestricted production."
"Asking people to do more when they are already doing all they can doesn't make sense. I don't think anyone is holding back spare capacity," said Daukoru, who is also Nigerian minister of state for petroleum.
