Opec in no hurry to increase oil production

Opec ministers said on Monday they would not be hurried into a decision on lifting output limits after Saudi Arabia broke ranks to go it alone with more oil.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries leading producer, Saudi has called on the cartel to raise quota restrictions by as much as 11 percent, 2.5 million barrels daily.
"It is too early to say about that," said Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah.
"We have many proposals. We are going to decide which figure and which measure to take in Beirut," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told reporters. A decision will be made at a full meeting in Beirut on June 3.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi confirmed over the weekend that Riyadh was opening the pumps whatever Opec decides - to 9.1 million barrels a day, up 10 percent from an estimated 8.3 million in April.
Saudi also wants Opec to lift group limits by 2-2.5 million bpd to 25.5-26 million. But, bar Saudi, the cartel already is pumping at full capacity, mostly above formal quotas, so higher allocations will only legitimise existing flows. "The market knows that if we do anything within that range then we are not doing anything, they have integrated that," said Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil.
Opec's reluctance to immediately endorse the Saudi plan and worries about whether the cartel can match demand growth over the rest of the year kept the heat under oil prices.
US light crude traded up 82 cents at $40.58 a barrel at 1510 GMT.
"I believe its not how much we announce we are going to put on the market, it is how much spare capacity the market believes that we have," said Nigeria's Presidential Adviser on Petroleum Edmund Daukoru.
Ministers met on Saturday before a forum of energy producing and consuming nations in Amsterdam to hear the Saudi plan. They made no recommendation other than to decide policy in Beirut.
Opec is under heavy pressure from big consumer nations to cut energy costs. In New York on Sunday the Group of Seven economic powers urged all producers to pump more crude to safeguard world economic growth.
Libyan Oil Minister Fethi bin Chetwane said the Saudi decision was "a mistake."
"Saudi Arabia can't decide alone to increase production," he said.