UAE: Too early to decide to reduce oil output

It's "too early" to say if the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) should rein in supply as Libyan production resumes, according to the UAE energy minister. The market needs more oil, his Kuwaiti counterpart said. "We don't really know when Libya will be back," Mohammad Bin Dha'en Al Hameli, Minister of Energy, said yesterday at a conference in Singapore, when asked about whether the UAE would cut output as Libya starts to pump more crude. "We have to wait." "The market needs about 1.5 million barrels a day more until the end of this year, or until the beginning of next year," Mohammad Al Busairy said in Kuwait. The UAE and Kuwait, responsible for about a third of oil produced by Opec's Gulf Arab nations, have raised output since March along with the world's biggest crude exporter Saudi Arabia as exports from Libya were shuttered during the armed rebellion to oust former leader Muammar Gaddafi. The UAE is producing 2.5 million barrels a day, 12 per cent more than its quota, while Kuwait's 2.9 million is 31 per cent more than its agreed limits, according to Bloomberg calculations based on information from the ministers. Brent crude has dropped 14 per cent from its highest price this year as Libya started producing and amid forecasts of slowing global growth. It traded below $110 (Dh404) a barrel yesterday on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, compared with the two and half year settlement high of $126.65 reached on April 8. "Our main aim as a producer is to make sure the market is well supplied and we are doing that," Al Hameli said.