Opec and non-Opec producers should act quickly to rebalance the global oil market, otherwise they risk deep damage that could take a long time to fix, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Wednesday.

 

After a surprise meeting a week ago, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar agreed to freeze production at January levels in an attempt to balance the market and boost oil prices that are down some 70 percent in the last 20 months.

 

Iraq had said it was willing to cooperate but gave no details on whether it would freeze its production.

 

Iran, which is the biggest obstacle to a global deal as it focuses on ramping up output after sanctions were lifted, has said the freeze proposal places "unrealistic demands" on it.

 

Falah Alamri, Iraq's Opec governor and head of the State Oil Marketing Organisation (Somo), did not say if Iraq would join other oil producers in the freeze deal but indicated that any change in the country's output plans has to be done jointly with international oil companies who develop its main oil fields.

 

"Opec and non-Opec countries should act promptly to rebalance world oil supply and demand or the damage could be deeper and take time to recover," Alamri told the Argus Middle East Crude Conference in Abu Dhabi.

 

He said the collapse and volatility in oil prices were not related to Iraq's oil production, which has been growing at a steady pace each year in line with the global demand, and would continue to do so.

 

"Steady moderate yearly increases in Iraq oil production have been in line with the global oil demand," he said.

 

Iraq's oil production was 4.775 million barrels per day (bpd) in January and the Opec member currently exports "nearly 4 million bpd" including shipments from the northern Kurdish region, Alamri said.

 

"At the end of the day we don't want to flood the market with oil, we have to take into consideration the yearly demand. It will be a sustainable development but there will be no jump, it will not be affecting the international market," he said.

 

"Iraq will try to maintain its crude oil market share in Asia, Europe, Americas and other markets." 

--Reuters