OPEC head predicting output cuts

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Oil markets should brace for a surprise decision on output cuts when OPEC meets Dec. 17, the cartel’s president said Saturday, suggesting that reductions could be deeper than expected.

“A consensus has formed for a significant reduction of production levels” by the 14-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC President Chakib Khelil told The Associated Press.

The OPEC head would not discuss how deep the output cut would be, but said it could be “severe,” and noted that some analysts are predicting cuts of as much as 2 million barrels per day.

An output decision that startles markets would help bolster plunging oil rates, Khelil said.

Oil prices settled Friday at a four-year low of $40.81 a barrel. In July, prices peaked at record highs above $140 a barrel.

OPEC previously announced a 1.5 million barrel-a-day reduction in October, but the decision failed to halt the fall in prices. Markets have been expecting another cut at the Dec. 17 summit.

“The stronger the decision, the faster prices will pick up,” Khelil said.

He urged oil producers outside OPEC to help the cartel regulate prices, especially Russia, which has said it could sign a cooperation memorandum with the cartel in the Algerian city of Oran.

“We hope that Russia will apply [quota decisions] ... as if it were an OPEC member,” Khelil said.

He acknowledged the cartel has little control over prices at the moment because of the slumping world economy, which has considerably reduced demand for oil.

He pointed out that cartel nations only produce 40 percent of the world’s oil. “The probability that we can adjust supply to demand is very weak,” he said. “In an unstable system, you react by trial and error.”