Qatar Won't Raise Crude Oil Output as Prices Soar

Qatar doesn't plan to follow Saudi Arabia's lead in increasing crude oil production because supplies are adequate, its oil minister said today.

``I never heard any panic about a shortage of supply, just about the high price,'' Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told Bloomberg in an interview in Madrid. ``We see in the market there are lots of cargoes.''

Qatar, the third-smallest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, joins oil-producing nations the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait in declining to increase output at a time when record crude oil prices are fueling global inflation and slowing growth.

Saudi Arabia decided to raise its production by 300,000 barrels a day this month and will add a further 200,000 barrels a day in July in a bid to quell prices that have jumped 46 percent this year. Crude oil climbed above $142 a barrel for the first time on June 27, closing at a record $140.21 in New York.

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