OPEC's role in supplying global oil markets has not been diminished by the surge in oil production in the United States, though trade patterns willshift as a result of the shale boom in North America, the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday.
In an interview with Platts on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, IEA executive director Maria van der Hoevensaid OPEC's role was as important as ever.
"I don't think that [OPEC] will be less important than it used to be," van der Hoeven said.
"It will be a very important player -- it's a reliable player. The demand for oil is still growing, especially in the Asian market," she said.
"So there will be a shift in trade routes -- that's true, that will happen."
US crude production has climbed to around 7-8 million b/d, significantly reducing the US' need to import foreign crude.
OPEC secretary general Abdalla el-Badri said last month after the latest ministerial meeting in Vienna that the group would conduct its own research into the burgeoning shale oil sector as it seeks to clarify whether shale will have a long-term impact on the group's oil exports.
With the boom in US shale oil production already causing concern among some, but not all, of the cartel's members, Badri said OPEC needed to have abetter understanding of this newest source of oil supply.
Van der Hoeven, meanwhile, said Saudi Arabia's spare capacity was still one of the most important factors in OPEC and the wider oil world.
"It's a cartel -- but the most important part of the cartel is the Middle East, and the most important part of the Middle East is Saudi Arabia given its spare capacity," she said.
"This is something that is important not only to OPEC but to the rest ofthe world as well."
NEW IRANIAN PRESIDENT
Production from another OPEC member state, Iran, has been impacted by international sanctions against Tehran targeting its controversial nuclear program.
However, the international community has been generally welcoming of the election last week of Hassan Rowhani as Iran's new president, seeing the possibility of a renewed effort to break the deadlock with the West over thenuclear issue.
Van der Hoeven said the IEA was monitoring the situation with regard toIran.
"Let's wait and see," she said. "It's always practice as you preach, butit's interesting."
On Iraq, meanwhile, van der Hoeven suggested that the rate of production growth in the country has not been as fast as Baghdad may have hoped.
"We think that Iraq has great potential, but they face quite a lot of problems," she said.
"There is still the problem of governance between the capital and the northern region, there is still the infrastructure problem, there is a huge shortage of human resources -- of skills -- and of course there is the water issue and transport," she said.
"That's the reason why the realized production is a little less than they expected."
Iraq's oil output has been constrained by a lack of export infrastructure, and also by the need to use large volumes of water in its oil production.
According to Platts latest survey of OPEC output, Iraq's production averaged 3.1 million b/d in May, around the same volume since the start of 2013.
Iraq has targeted increasing output capacity to 4.5 million b/d by the end of 2014.
