Opec 'unlikely' to cut oil production

An oil analyst doubts the Opec cartel will cut production, considering current prices.

Venezuela is demanding a production cut of between 500,000 and a million barrels a day when the group meets this week, claiming the market is oversupplied.

At a meeting in January, Opec decided to keep its production ceiling of 28 million barrels a day.

Oil analyst Richard Hale says that position is unlikely to change.

He says with oil still fetching more than US$60 a barrel, Opec is unlikely to cut back.

Opec's president has said the world oil market is oversupplied by about 2 million barrels a day.

Venezuela, the only Latin American member of the cartel, has a quota of 3.2 million barrels per day, about half of which is sold to the United States.

It says the fundamentals of the market make a cut necessary.

- NEWSTALK ZB