Top oil exporters Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait said on Monday that Opec was unlikely to cut output when it meets this week, despite lingering concerns about second quarter oversupply.
Speaking before the March 8 meeting, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said oil market supplies were "stable" but that concerns about supply distruptions in some producing countries - such as Nigeria, Iran and Iraq - were fuelling prices.
"Opec should not take any decision to decrease production because any such decision would be the main reason for price hikes," Naimi told Al Hayat newspaper.
"We know the reason for the current increase in prices and it is the fear about anything that would cut supplies."
Iran's Opec governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili also said he expected the oil cartel to maintain output.
"Opec members are unlikely to reduce production at its March 8 meeting, considering high prices," he told the ISNA student news agency in an interview.
Fears of more violent attacks against Nigeria's oil industry, which have already shut a fifth of the country's oil exports, and international tension over Iran's nuclear plans have helped push up prices.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah also blamed the high prices on geopolitics and said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) must keep its output steady to further heat up prices.
"Due to the (high) prices, we have to maintain our production," he told reporters. "Kuwait's position is to maintain the production to help prices to be more stable."
The ministers' remarks helped brake a four-day rally in oil prices on Monday but tension over Iran and Nigeria checked losses. Front-month US crude slipped 22 cents to $63.45 a barrel and London Brent crude was down 9 cents to $64.09 a barrel in early morning trade.
The Saudi oil minister said some Opec members were pushing to reduce production, adding that this would harm producers. Price hawk Venezuela has said Opec should consider an output cut of between 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 1 million bpd.
Opec President Edmund Daukoru has said the global oil market is oversupplied by about 2 million bpd, but that if oil prices persist above $60 a barrel the cartel would "definitely take that into account" at its March meeting.
Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad said he expected a further 1.5-2 million bpd oversupply in the second quarter, adding that Opec should act to stabilise prices.
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