World oil markets are "very well supplied," OPEC secretary general Abdalla el-Badri said Thursday, stressing that fundamentals of supply and demand were "fine" and that oil was not in short supply anywhere in the world.
Nevertheless, he said, OPEC is maintaining a close eye on supply and will take action if necessary. "The market is very well supplied. Fundamentals are fine. There is no shortage of oil anywhere in the world," Badri told a news briefing broadcast live from the oil cartel's Vienna headquarters.
"We are watching production day by day. If we see something out of control, we will act accordingly," he said.
In its just-released annual World Oil Outlook, OPEC forecasts that demand for its crude will fall from 31.1 million b/d this year to 29.7 million b/d in 2016.
The oil producer group expects non-OPEC liquids, including shale oil in the US, to take the lion's share of growth in world oil demand over the period to 2016. It sees world oil demand growing by 5.1 million b/d over the next five years and non-OPEC liquids supply rising by 4.2 million b/d.
But while OPEC crude supply is set to remain in the doldrums, OPEC production of natural gas liquids and unconventional oil is expected to grow by 1.2 million b/d.
OPEC currently has a 30 million b/d crude output ceiling, agreed in late 2011 and extended in June for a further six months, but has not distributed individual output quotas under this ceiling. Actual production is more than 1 million b/d above that level.
Ministers will meet in Vienna on December 12 to set output levels for 2013.
Badri, meanwhile, said Iraq was currently producing "about 3.1 million b/d,", which is 500,000 b/d more than in 2011, and is expected to boost output further next year.
"If this pattern continues, we're expecting another 500,000 b/d in 2013, so we're talking about 3.6 million b/d," he said.
"We are watching Iraq very carefully," he added.
With the help of international oil companies, Iraq has been lifting its crude output after years of UN sanctions following its 1990 invasion of neighbor and fellow OPEC member Kuwait and a US-led war in 2003. It has yet to return to OPEC's quota system.
