Ecuador Min: China, India To Offset Slower US Oil Demand

CANCUN, Mexico -(Dow Jones)- Continued growth in China and India will offset slower growth in the U.S.'s oil demand, Ecuadorean Oil Minister Galo Chiriboga said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Cancun, he said there are no signs that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries needs to change output policy at this time.

OPEC ministers will hold informal discussions at an oil producer-consumer conference in Rome later this month, he said.

Earlier Thursday, Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia made similar statements, telling Dow Jones Newswires that the market is well supplied and there is no reason for OPEC to alter oil production policy at the present.

-By Peter Millard, Dow Jones Newswires; 52-55-5080-3454; peter.millard@ dowjones.com