OPEC members 80 percent compliant with cut

KUWAIT CITY, March 9 (UPI) -- An Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries official said OPEC members had complied 80 percent with September's 4.2 million barrel per day quota cut.

Moussa Marafi, a member of OPEC's Higher Petroleum Council, said compliance would be higher once existing contracts had run their course, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported Monday.

Marafi also said another 1 million barrel per day production cut would push the price of oil above $50 per barrel by the third quarter of the year.

Public comments by OPEC oil ministers on whether a new round of production cuts would be announced after a March 15 meeting in Vienna have been contradictory.

Earlier in March, Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari has said further cuts were unlikely. In February, Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil, said there was a "strong possibility" OPEC would reduce production.