OPEC confident member countries will abide by cuts: president

VIENNA, October 24, 2008 (AFP) – OPEC President Chakib Khelil expressed confidence on Friday that the oil cartel’s members would stand by their commitments to cut output as decided at an emergency meeting here.

“I’m very confident. I think they don’t have a choice,” Khelil told a news conference here.

“What choice do they have? See the oil price go down to lower levels?

I don’t think they have a choice.

”

Khelil was speaking after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to slash its daily oil output by 1.5 million barrels from November 1 to help stabilise free-falling prices.

Khelil pointed out that, on top of 300,000 barrels already being cut at present, the total cut by the end of the year would actually amount to 1.8 million barrels.

Of the 11 OPEC countries that have a definite quota, following is a table of cuts agreed by country in terms of barrels per day:

Algeria 71,000

Angola 99,000

Ecuador 27,000

Iran 199,000

Kuwait 132,000

Libya 89,000

Nigeria 113,000

Qatar 43,000

Saudi Arabia 466,000

United Arab Emirates 134,000

Venezuela 129,000

TOTAL: 1.5 million