Iran, S. Arabia see oil market balanced

Iran's Governor at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Mohammad Ali Khatibi said global crude markets are in balance.Speaking in Riyadh, Khatibi said he foresees a "positive" meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next month. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi also made similar remarks. There is no oversupply, al-Naimi said in the Saudi Arabian capital yesterday, adding today that he is "very happy" with crude prices, Bloomberg reported. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Dec. 14 in Vienna to decide whether it needs to alter production targets. Oil ministers from Iran, Nigeria and Algeria said on Nov. 13 that markets aren't over-supplied, a sign they see little need to alter the group's output yet. The converging views of Saudi Arabia and Iran, OPEC's biggest members, was earlier announced by Iranian officials. In October Khatibi, whose country holds presidency over the world oil cartel, said on Saturday that OPEC members are narrowing down their differences over production ceiling, given the deteriorating economic conditions in the advanced countries. "We do not accept that a gap exists in the OPEC since different views have always existed in the OPEC," Khatibi told FNA, dismissing media reports on the widening of rifts among the OPEC members in their latest meeting. Also in an interview yesterday, Khatibi said, "There were two views on global demand in June, one was optimistic and the other was cautious," he said. "Now everyone is convinced that we need to be cautious."The current outlook for demand is not as "rosy" as some of OPEC's "optimistic" members had anticipated in June, Khatibi said. Also in early October both Iran and Saudi Arabia said at the weekend after oil prices slumped on Friday on renewed global economic worries. OPEC should be wary of a possible drop in demand next year, Khatibi said in the interview in Riyadh yesterday. He said the opposing views had nothing to do with politics and were due "purely" to different economic data and projections. OPEC members will need to cut back from current levels as Libya returns, Abdalla el-Badri said yesterday. "Libya is coming back very strong. I think in six months time from the start of production they will reach 1 million barrels a day." "December will be a very comfortable meeting," el-Badri said. On whether the group will leave output quotas unchanged, he said, "Ministers will decide, but you will not see the friction that you saw last time."