OPEC unlikely to cut oil output: sources

By Alex Lawler and Simon Webb

LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC will find it difficult to cut its oil output because prices are again rising toward a record high, Libya's top oil official and OPEC sources said on Tuesday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna on March 5 and some members including Iran have urged the group to lower output, even though oil is trading above $98 a barrel.

"There is still more than two weeks to go and prices are at $98," Libya's National Oil Corporation Chairman Shokri Ghanem told Reuters by telephone. "It is too early to say."

"We know that it is not all fundamentals, but whenever the price is like this, it is difficult to cut."

Earlier on Tuesday, OPEC sources said a reduction was unlikely to be decided at the meeting because of rising prices and uncertainty about supply from Venezuela and Nigeria.

"Prices are high and this is not the time to talk about a cut," said an OPEC delegate from one of the group's larger producers, who declined to be identified by name.

"It is too early at this time to make a definitive statement, but the logic would be no change," said a second source familiar with OPEC policy.

Nigeria's oil output has been hit by militant attacks and fellow OPEC member Venezuela is threatening to halt oil sales to the United States over a dispute with the world's biggest oil firm, Exxon Mobil.