ENERGY

Venezuela, Nigeria Ministers Say Iraq Oil Sale Won’t Hurt Prices: The ministers, who arrived in Vienna for the Wednesday meeting of the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, echoed comments by Saudi Arabia that OPEC does not fear a price collapse when Iraq resumes exports once a six-year ban is lifted. “The market is very stable and very good, [and] the price is very good too,” Dan Etete, the Nigerian oil minister, said during an interview. Erwin Jose Arrieta, Venezuela’s oil minister, said current prices “are OK,” adding there is “no question” that demand is sufficient to take up new supplies from Iraq without hurting prices. Arrieta also said OPEC will not have to cut its production limits to keep up prices once Iraq resumes exports after the ban. The United Nations and Iraq agreed May 20 to an “oil-for-food” plan that will allow Iraq to sell $1 billion worth of crude every 90 days during a six-month period to fund humanitarian aid. That’s about 700,000 barrels a day at current prices, adding about 1% to global supplies. Iraq was barred by the U.N. from exporting oil after the country invaded Kuwait in August 1990.