Saudi says OPEC to discuss oil output boost

By Ulf Laessing

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, said on Sunday that the exporter group would discuss an increase in oil output at an upcoming meeting in a bid to cool record prices near $100 a barrel.

OPEC heads of state will meet in Riyadh on November 17-18 and consumer countries are urging the group to lift output to avert a supply crunch. The group's oil ministers hold their next formal meeting on December 5 in Abu Dhabi.

"This is premature but we will discuss the issue when we meet," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters after discussions with his Kuwaiti counterpart.

The acting oil minister for Kuwait, also one of OPEC's core Gulf members, said after the meeting that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will consider increasing output if the markets need it.

"OPEC will not hesitate to exercise its responsibilities," Mohammad al-Olaim told reporters at the airport in Kuwait.

Asked if this would include a possible output increase, he said: "If the market requires it and according to market principles."

OPEC is not currently expected to make a formal decision on supply in Riyadh, where Saudi Arabia will host the group's third heads of state summit, and appears more likely to wait until the meeting in Abu Dhabi.

"It is unlikely that this issue will be decided in Riyadh," said a delegate from an OPEC country outside the Gulf.

SAUDI INFLUENCE

At a meeting in September, Saudi Arabia persuaded OPEC, source of more than a third of the world's oil, to raise production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from November 1 in a gesture to consumer countries worried about soaring prices and diminishing stocks.

The move has failed to prevent crude oil surging to an all-time high of $98.62 a barrel in New York on November 7, a rise from below $80 when the group met in Vienna on September 11.

Even with prices at around that level, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were concerned about the high cost of oil and its negative impact on consumers.

There is already evidence that costly oil is taking its toll on demand in top consumer the United States.

In the past month, demand for fuel in the United States fell 0.4 percent from a year ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report on Wednesday.

Up to now most in OPEC insist that the market is well supplied with crude and that a further supply increase would do little to tame a rally driven by speculators, political tensions and a weak U.S. dollar.