Oil prices held steady today at above $53 a barrel after three OPEC countries said they saw no need for producers to increase output despite crude hovering just below four-month highs.
US light crude slipped 8 cents to $53.70 a barrel, nearly $2 below last October's record $55.67, but more than 18 per cent higher than a month ago. Iran and Qatar lined up with Venezuela against boosting OPEC production.
The group's president yesterday expressed concern over high prices but said the market was well supplied.
"Opec is concerned about this price development despite the fact that the market is well-supplied and global crude oil stocks have continued to build," Opec president and Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said in a statement.
Opec meets on March 16th in Iran to review production policy. Ministers are usually wary of pumping more crude going into the second quarter because demand traditionally falls as the northern hemisphere winter draws to a close.
But the latest price rally to near-record levels prompted Nigeria to say on Friday that OPEC may discuss next week an output increase or a relaxation of official production limits.
OPEC is already pumping above its limit of 27 million barrels per day (bpd) at about 27.63 million bpd in February.
Saudi Arabia accounted for a little more than three-quarters of the leakage above the formal ceiling, with production rising 190,000 bpd from January.