No need to boost OPEC output, Caracas says

CARACAS - Venezuela`s energy minister said Saturday that it is unnecessary to boost the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries` output during the upcoming ministerial meeting set to open next week.
"I don`t see a need for OPEC to boost its production," Rafael Ramirez told reporters in Ciudad Bolivar, 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Caracas.
He also attributed the current rise in prices to "both the war in Iraq and the low US refining capacity."
OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said Saturday that OPEC ministers who meet in Iran next week are likely to maintain the current output ceiling, stressing that the cartel would take measures to stabilize soaring oil prices.
"I think we will continue with the same ceiling" of 27 million barrels per day, he told reporters when asked what he expected OPEC to do when it meets in the Iranian city of Isfahan on March 16.
Venezuela is the lone Latin American member of OPEC, with an output quota of 3.1 million barrels a day.

03/12/2005 19:56 GMT