Vienna, 6 June 2011: Reuters

Gulf Arab OPEC members led by Saudi Arabia will push for an increase in supplies at a meeting of the oil cartel this week in an effort to support flagging world economic growth by bringing crude prices back below $100 a barrel. Data indicating that economic recovery may be stalling in the West is worrying OPEC's core Gulf members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi and its fellow Gulf producers will argue that oil prices are undermining the economic growth that fuels demand for OPEC crude and that more supply is needed to balance demand in the second half of the year.

But Riyadh is not prepared to force-feed crude on to the market to push prices aggressively lower. "We need to increase by at least one million barrels a day," a Gulf OPEC delegate told Reuters in Vienna on Sunday.

"We're not happy with current prices."

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