Iraq's oil minister Abdul Karim Luaibi said Tuesday in Tokyo that he expected OPEC to cut crude output at its December meeting in anticipation of weaker demand for oil next year.
Luaibi, who responded to written questions from the media, also said that oil prices of $100-120/barrel were "reasonable and acceptable."
Iraq has been exempt from OPEC production allocations as it rebuilds its shattered oil industry.
OPEC ministers are due to meet in Vienna on December 14, the 12-member group's first formal conference since the acrimonious June 8 meeting when Iran, Algeria, Angola, Venezuela, Libya and Ecuador blocked a Saudi-backed proposal to raise actual estimated output from all 12 members by 1.5 million b/d.
A Platts survey of OPEC, oil industry officials and analysts last week estimated OPEC output at 30.05 million b/d in October.
OPEC Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri said in Riyadh on Sunday that he believed OPEC might maintain current production next year, unless there were, what he called, "negative" economic developments.
