Opec ministers on Saturday differed over how to deal with oil's price surge, as the UAE said Opec may have to rethink a deal to reduce production but Iran said it was sticking to the cuts.
Opec's agreement last month to cut supply quotas by 4 percent from April has helped push oil prices to the highest level since just before last March's US-led invasion of Iraq. Opec meets on March 31 to review policy.
"We have no difficulty with the situation," Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Saturday ahead of a gas producers conference.
"We have committed ourselves to the Opec decision," he added. Iran is Opec's second biggest producer behind Saudi Arabia.
By contrast, the United Arab Emirates' Oil Minister Obaid al-Nasseri said Opec could defer the decision to cut quotas if prices are too high and stockpiles too low,
US crude is bubbling around a dollar below last week's post-Iraq war highs above $37.50 a barrel as rapid growth in Chinese demand and low US fuel stocks spurs buying from speculative hedge funds.
"Opec could review its decision if there are new developments at the time of the meeting and the ministers consider that they necessitate or justify reviewing the decision," Nasseri told reporters before heading to the Cairo conference.
"If there is a review, it will be to delay applying the decision and not to cancel it," Nasseri said.
Most Opec ministers have said the cartel will go through with the April reductions despite oil's price strength. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Nigeria have scheduled lower April crude sales to their customers to comply with the agreement.
"We have announced to our customers that we are going to reduce our allocation," said Zanganeh.
The UAE has also informed customers of cutbacks in crude oil supplies for April. In the UAE's case, the reduction coincides with scheduled maintenance at some of their oil producing facilities.
Opec, which controls around half the world's crude exports, has said it is worried prices could fall heavily in the second quarter when demand declines after the northern winter.
"It's our main concern," said Zanganeh, when asked if he was still concerned about the second quarter.
Opec's decision to cut provoked an angry response from the US government, worried about the impact of rising energy costs on economic growth in an election year.
International prices have risen as political unrest in Venezuela, a big regional supplier of crude and gasoline to the United States sharpens fears of a US gasoline supply crunch as new environmental regulations kick in.
"Some other things out of our control have happened in the market and we cannot do, we believe, anything more to control the market," said Zanganeh.
Opec's President Purnomo Yusgiantoro of Indonesia has said the cartel will continue leaking over formal quotas to stop prices getting out of hand.
The 10 Opec members with quotas, excluding Iraq, supplied around 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) above their existing 24.5 million bpd ceiling in February. Opec agreed to cut the official ceiling to 23.5 million bpd from April.
"We have unofficially overproduction in the market and it seems we haven't any shortage," said Zanganeh.
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