Quiet hike in OPEC oil output

The International Energy Agency says some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are quietly increasing their outputs.

IEA says OPEC members such as Saudi Arabia are unobtrusively raising their output in order to control the rise in global oil prices.

Saudi Arabia “has been making more crude available to the market,” and “preliminary market data indicate that the kingdom is on track to increase production again in January,” The Financial Times quoted the IEA as saying on Tuesday.

The IEA report comes while OPEC members such as the United Arab Emirates and Iran, who holds the organization’s rotating presidency, have suggested there is no need for oil outputs to increase.

Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mir- Kazemi, the current president of OPEC, said at a news conference in Damascus on Tuesday that “prices of USD 100 and above are not worrisome for producers.”

The global crude oil benchmark was up 25 cents to USD 97.68 a barrel early on Tuesday, which is near its highest price in 27 months.

OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organization of 12 oil-exporting countries including Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Iran took over at the rotating presidency of OPEC this year for the first time in the past 36 years.