IEA LOOKS TO OPEC FIRST TO MEET ANY LIBYA SHORTAGE

Riyadh, February 23 (Reuters)- The International Energy Agency will rely first of all on OPEC to meet any loss of Libyan oil and would save its emergency stockpiles as a last resort, its executive director said.

"We can produce 2 million barrels per day (bpd) for two years but these are stocks and once we use them, they will run out, unlike spare capacity," Nobuo Tanaka told Reuters. "That's why the stocks are for great emergencies”.

"So if there are disruptions in Libya and OPEC steps in with an extra one million barrels, then the gap is covered”.

Both IEA officials and OPEC have repeatedly made clear they can act to calm oil markets if there is a genuine shortage.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has around 5 million bpd of spare capacity, most of which is held by Saudi Arabia.

"We we have enough credence to tell you that we will meet any shortage in demand," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Riyadh at the end of producer-consumer talks on Tuesday.

He also said there was no shortage for now and that it was fear that has propelled oil prices well above $100 a barrel.

The latest leg of a market rally has been spurred by the spread of a wave of revolutionary unrest into OPEC member Libya, which produces around 1.5 million bpd, of which it exports roughly 1 million bpd.

Of the IEA members, Italy was most concerned about the loss of Libyan energy exports, Tanaka said. Italy's Eni has been among the companies that have suspended output from their Libyan fields.

He said Italy's concerns would be discussed at an IEA governing board meeting on Thursday and Friday.

The Paris-based IEA advises and coordinates energy policy for the industrialised nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

It has a mandate to ask its members to release oil stocks in the case of emergency supply disruption, but has very rarely done so.

It last did so in 2005 when it released refined products after Hurricane Katrina crippled operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

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