The Opec oil producer cartel is over-managing global oil markets and leaving too little leeway to deal with sudden crises, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.
Opec was meeting in Algiers on Tuesday to discuss output levels and was set reach agreement to keep oil production limits unchanged for now, preferring to tighten adherence with existing quotas.
"We think (Opec) under-supply the market by maintaining very low commercial stocks in the world and that makes prices too high and too volatile," IEA Executive Director Claude Mandil told a news conference in Helsinki.
"We are urging Opec countries to first make the market more flexible and less stretched not to try to micro-manage the market as they do," he said.
The oil minister for Saudi Arabia, Opec's largest producer Ali al-Naimi told Reuters ahead of the Opec meeting which began at 1100 GMT he saw a firm deal among producers to cut back on leakage above the group's official 24.5 million barrel day output limit.
Such a deal would be designed to help prop up oil prices ahead of slacker seasonal demand after the northern hemisphere winter without sending prices spiralling again by cutting now.
Delegates said one proposal on the agenda was to discuss the principle of reducing output from April, with volumes to be agreed at its next meeting, already scheduled for March 31.
Mandil said low Opec stocks makes it hard to ensure supply in the face of unforeseen events like last year's cold, demand-fuelling weather in North America and an earlier Venezuelan general strike that temporarily cut off crude production there.
Mandil was in Helsinki for the release of the IEA's latest review of Finland's energy policies.