Washington (Platts)--28Nov2011/249 pm EST/1949 GMT

International Energy Agency Director Maria van der Hoeven said Monday that tight oil supplies continue to threaten the global economy, even as Libyan production returns quicker than some expected.

Van der Hoeven, during an interview in Washington, said the rebuilding of Libya's petroleum sector "looks as if it's going quite fast. This of course is very interesting and reassuring."

She declined to give her expectations for OPEC's December 14 meeting, and called it unwise to comment on escalating political tensions between western countries and Iran.

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"Just wait for what they are going to decide, because it's up to them," she said of OPEC. "It's their job and they have to come to a decision."

Van der Hoeven said she would not comment on the issues because IEA is not a political organization. "Of course we are acquiring data and assessing and monitoring the situation and providing all kinds of information on that, but that's it," she said.

Fatih Birol, IEA's chief economist, was more willing to engage on the Mideast producers. He said most Iranian oil exports go to Asia, and he does not see the expanding western sanctions having a "major impact" on global supply or prices.

Birol urged OPEC against calling for output cuts at next month's meeting in Vienna.

"Oil prices are uncomfortably high today, especially in the times of economic recovery," Birol said after presenting IEA's World Energy Outlook at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"I hope to see that our colleagues in the producing countries would read the market signals, such as the high oil import bills of the countries and second the inflationary pressures in some countries and the growing trade imbalances in some countries seriously and make their decisions accordingly," Birol added.

Earlier Monday, Van der Hoeven met privately with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss findings in IEA's latest World Energy Outlook and global efforts to improve energy efficiency, adopt renewable fuels, and to increase poor communities' access to energy. Van der Hoeven said it was the first time an IEA director met with a US secretary of state.

Van der Hoeven said growing US oil output from shale drilling also came up with Clinton.

"It's very, very exciting to see how this has been developing in the past year," she said. "It's driven by two things: the independence and energy security, and the other driving factor is price. Price makes this kind of oil exploration quite profitable."

--Meghan Gordon, meghan_gordon@platts.com

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