Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners are likely to resist demands for a big cut in oil output amid fears of a crippling global economic downturn, analysts said.
Opec hawks have called for the cartel's meeting tomorrow to agree a substantial reduction to halt a rapid slide in oil prices, now running at less than half their peak of almost $150 just three months ago.
Iran in particular, the second largest producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is demanding a cut of at least two million barrels a day.
"I think that the maximum Saudi Arabia will be willing to do is to cut the extra barrels it started pumping in the summer in a bid to cool off rocketing oil prices," Saudi economist Abdulwahan Abu-Dahesh said.
Riyadh unilaterally raised production by 5,00,000 bpd to 9.7 million bpd in the summer in the face of Western pressure to stem soaring prices.
The kingdom, along with the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar, account for more than half OPEC's official production quota of 28.8 million bpd.
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Qatar, which pumps 8,00,000 bpd out of around 15 million produced by the four nations, has called for a one million bpd cut to shore up prices but its Gulf neighbours have remained silent.
The National Bank of Kuwait said in an economic report that Opec moderates are not likely to accept cuts of more than one million bpd.
"Some OPEC members, notably Saudi Arabia, will want to appear sensitive to concerns about the impact that a renewed climb in crude prices would have on a weak world economy," it said.