Kuwait sees no oil summit before OPEC’s December meeting

A summit of OPEC and non-OPEC, as suggested by Venezuela, would be pointless as independent producers are not committed to cutting output, Kuwait’s oil minister said on Monday.

“The problem is that there is no commitment from the countries outside OPEC on what they would offer for the stability of prices,” Ali al-Omair said.

“Their request from the OPEC members is to… reduce production while others continue pumping, and then we lose our market share.”

Cash-strapped OPEC-member Venezuela has for months been pushing for an emergency OPEC meeting with Russia to stem the tumble in prices.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is due to meet next in December.

Saudi Arabia too sees no need to hold a heads of state summit nor interfere in the oil market. One OPEC source said that should such a meeting produce no concrete outcome, it would have a negative impact on prices.

Earlier this month, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reiterated calls for action within OPEC and beyond OPEC, mentioning controls on output and price bands, adding he would travel shortly to lobby for a meeting.

Omair said global crude oversupply now is about 1.8 million barrels per day, adding that if oil demand continued to grow and supplies from U.S. shale drillers stayed at current levels, oil prices would rise by the end of 2015. He did not give further details.

Oil prices fell on Monday, paring some of last week’s 2 per cent rally, despite evidence of slowing U.S. production and a fourth weekly increase in U.S. investor holdings of crude futures.