It took OPEC less than two hours on 11 June to agree that a current collective ceiling of 30mn b/d for its 12 members was enough to meet supply in the second half of the year. But, whilst rising Iraqi output had in recent months provided ‘good news’ to counterbalance outages in Libya and Nigeria, the country may yet provide OPEC with an even bigger challenge.

Ministers agreed to meet again on 27 November, but they may find themselves back in Vienna sooner should the security situation in Iraq deteriorate further and threaten supply from OPEC’s second largest producer. (CONTINUED - 1362 WORDS)