Opec won't cut output even at US$20 a barrel: Saudi

[RIYADH] Opec will not cut oil production even if the price drops to US$20 a barrel and it is unfair to expect the cartel to reduce output if non-members do not, Saudi Arabia said.

"Whether it goes down to US$20 a barrel, US$40, US$50, US$60, it is irrelevant," the kingdom's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in an interview with the Middle East Economic Survey, an industry weekly.

In unusually detailed comments, Naimi defended a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose lead producer is Saudi Arabia, last month to maintain a production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day.

The decision sent global crude prices tumbling, worsening a price drop that has seen them fall by around 50 per cent since June.

AFP