2011-04-18 08:23

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti caretaker oil minister said Sunday the global oil market has sufficient supplies, as unrest in the Midest and North African region has boosted oil prices by around 20 percent.

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said on the eve of an Asian energy ministers' meeting that Kuwait pumps out 2.2 million barrels of crude per day.

His view was echoed by the world's largest oil-exporter Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, who said Sunday the oil market was over supplied.

Saudi Arabia has said it has the capacity to make up the vacancy left by Libya and said speculation rather than shortage pushed up the oil prices which was relatively stable in the past year.

Oil ministers from the OPEC have decided to keep the current quota unchanged since the end of 2008, when the bloc reduced production to reverse the sliding prices.

Kuwait, the fourth largest exporter of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), sits atop around 10 percent of the world's proven oil reserves.