OPEC president says too early for output decision

By Amena Bakr and Stanley Carvalho

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - OPEC president Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said on Monday it was still too early for the oil exporters' group to make a decision on production changes before its December meeting, as the market remained oversupplied.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet in Luanda, Angola, on December 22 to decide on its oil production policy.

"The situation is not (yet) stabilized... I think the market has, at this time, a lot of stocks... and we need to wait until the meeting," he told Reuters.

Botelho de Vasconcelos said the market was still "a little bit" oversupplied, putting current global oil inventories now about 62 days of forward cover.

"Ideally the forward cover should be around 52 to 53 days," he told reporters later, ahead of a speech on energy security.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) last week said that stocks of oil in OECD countries remained very high at the equivalent of 60 days of forward demand at the end of September, down from 60.9 days at the end of August.

Compliance in the producer group with its output targets was currently around 65 percent, he said. The IEA, which advises 28 industrialized economies, said last week that compliance among the group's members had slipped.

"I'm happy with compliance, I think our organization is at 65 percent," Botelho de Vasconcelos said.

OPEC has kept official output targets unchanged at meetings this year, after it agreed to curb output by 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last year.

OIL NOT TOO HIGH

The OPEC president said $80 per barrel was a good price for oil.

"It is not high, it is a good price," he said.

Global oil prices have rebounded nearly 73 percent so far this year, having fallen about 54 percent in 2008.

Prices have received a boost from a weaker dollar and rallying equities markets amid signs of stronger global growth.

On Monday U.S. crude futures for December delivery rose $1.06 to $77.41 a barrel by 0751 GMT, regaining most of last week's 1.4 percent losses.