VIENNA (AFP) — OPEC on Tuesday looked set to ignore US President George W. Bush's demand that the cartel increase oil output at its meeting here, with hardline members even calling for a cut in production.
Bush, whose nation is the world's biggest energy consumer, said it would be a "mistake" by OPEC not to hike production to help bring down record high oil prices when the organisation meets on Wednesday.
But OPEC ministers, as well as an influential committee that advises the 13-member oil-producing club, are in favour of keeping output on hold ahead of expected slackening demand in the northern hemisphere spring.
"I think it's a mistake to have your biggest customer economy slow down, or your biggest customers' economy slowing down, as a result of high energy prices," Bush said Tuesday as he met with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
"My advice to OPEC is understand the consequences of high energy prices," added the US president.
New York crude struck an all-time peak of 103.95 dollars per barrel on Monday as the US currency dived to a fresh low against the euro, further increasing the risk of an economic slowdown and higher inflation.
OPEC president, Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil, said Tuesday that he would prefer the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut its production, joining other price hawks in the group, Venezuela and Iran.
"I would prefer in this situation to lower production because demand globally is going to be lower," Khelil told a press briefing ahead of Wednesday's meeting in Vienna.
OPEC fears that a hike in output would send oil prices tumbling, thus reducing the income of its 13 members, which include the world's biggest crude producer Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela.
Bush's plea might still still influence OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, which is a close US ally. The country has pushed through output increases in the past in the face of resistance from other OPEC members.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi has so far declined to speak to reporters.
But an OPEC committee that advises the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries on output policy is set to recommend that the group keeps its daily oil production quota at 29.67 million barrels, Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters.
Asked if OPEC's Ministerial Monitoring Sub-Committee would recommend that the organisation maintains output, Nozari told reporters: "It seems."
Oil prices turned lower on Tuesday as traders took profits but New York crude remained above 102 dollars per barrel.
At an extraordinary OPEC meeting on February 1 in Vienna -- called amid fears of a global economic slowdown -- the cartel agreed to maintain its current daily output quota of 29.67 million barrels of oil.
In sitting tight, the organisation ignored previous pleas from Bush to increase production.
The price of oil has doubled since the start of 2007 -- a major reason being soaring demand for energy from emerging economic powers China and India.
Another factor pushing up the price has been unrest in oil producing countries, notably Iran and Nigeria.
While US crude reserves are rising, oil exporting countries, with the exception of kingpin Saudi Arabia, are accused by analysts of failing to invest sufficiently in infrastructure needed to produce oil.
They counter that much of the increase in prices can be put down to speculative financial activity in oil and other commodities, which are all trading at multi-year highs, rather than real demand for crude.
OPEC comprises Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
Iraq is the only member without an output quota owing to persistent unrest in the country.
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