Tokyo: Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil exporter in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), is producing less crude than its target and global stockpiles are likely to decline, according to Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi.

The country is producing less than eight million barrels of crude a day, Al Naimi told reporters yesterday in Tokyo, where he is attending a meeting of Asian energy ministers. Stockpiles "will come down eventually", he said.

US stockpiles have climbed to the highest since September 1990 even as Saudi Arabia leads efforts to implement a 4.2 million-barrel a day reduction in oil output from the group's September levels. The country is producing 7.79 million barrels a day, less than its target of 8.1 million barrels a day.

Opec decided against any further output constraints at a March 15 meeting in Vienna on concern that a fourth cut since September risked increasing energy costs amid the global recession. The group will convene again there on May 28.

Opec needs to monitor the global oil market carefully to determine if it is oversupplied, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah told reporters earlier in Tokyo yesterday. The outcome of the group's next meeting is "very hard to predict", he said.

Secretary-General Abdullah Al Badri wants Opec to fully implement supply cuts agreed last year before it discusses any further reductions, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Still, the group won't hesitate to take further action if needed at its next meeting, the report cited Al Badri as saying.

Opec isn't formally obligated to reach its output targets before announcing new cuts.

The group that supplies about 40 per cent of the world's crude oil has completed 83 per cent of 4.2 million barrels a day of production curbs agreed last year, according to data last week from the organisation.

Opec's output averaged 27.395 million barrels a day last month, down 345,000, or 1.2 per cent, from February, according to the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. The 11 Opec members with quotas, all except Iraq, pumped 25.06 million barrels a day, 215,000 more than their target.

Statement: Recovery plan

Middle East oil producers of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said on Saturday they wanted oil output policy to help support world economic recovery.

Oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar showed no sign of veering from the moderate production policy which has helped keep oil prices on a leash not far from $50 a barrel since early March.