Iraq, Saudi on OPEC collision course over next oil curb
A new rivalry at the top of the OPEC oil producer group has emerged, pitting up-and-coming Iraq against undisputed cartel heavyweight Saudi Arabia.
Having overtaken Iran as OPEC's second biggest producer, a rejuvenated Iraq is beginning to worry Riyadh.
At Wednesday's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries the opening salvos were fired in the struggle over who takes responsibility for cutting output if oil prices, now at a comfortable $109 a barrel, start falling.
OPEC agreed to retain its 30-million barrel-a-day output target and meet next on May 31, but many market observers think supply restrictions will be needed sooner rather than later if producers want to prevent slow global growth and swelling inventories sending prices tumbling.
After 20 years of war, sanctions and civil strife that left its oil industry in disarray, Iraq is no mood to consider curtailing output just as it starts to take off.
"Iraq will never cut production," said Iraq's OPEC Governor Falah Alamri. "Some countries that have increased their production in the last two years - they should do so. This is a sovereign issue, not an OPEC issue."
That was a clear reference to Saudi Arabia, which this summer lifted output to a 30-year high above 10 million barrels a day to prevent oil prices ballooning after Western sanctions on Iran halved its production.
The view from Riyadh, said delegates at the meeting, is that Iraq should contribute to the next round of OPEC supply curbs.
If Saudi pushed that line there would be "dark days ahead" warned
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