The jockeying for higher quotas has begun, as the group's members prepare for the day when they will be allowed to pump more crude. First out of the gate is Venezuela, which has long sought OPEC recognition of its heavy oil reserves as the basis for a push for a higher production ceiling. This week's publication in the 2010 edition of the benchmark of a new, of the country's oil reserves could help Caracas in discussions over its OPEC quota. Indeed, the figure may have come from the OPEC secretariat, as the posted on the group's recently refurbished web site matches BP's. What that could eventually mean for the rest of the world would be proportionately more crude flowing from Venezuela than from other OPEC states. The additional oil would not necessarily be the ultra-heavy crude characteristic of the country's vast deposits, which Venezuela plans to develop with . Regardless of its OPEC commitment, Venezuela could develop and pump oil from those reservoirs any time it felt the economics were favourable, as such crude is classed as "unconventional" and lies outside the quota agreement. Even so, Venezuela's conventional crude is heavier than most of the oil exported from the Gulf, which in many respects is OPEC's heartland. A higher OPEC quota for Venezuela would therefore probably mean a higher average carbon content for crude on the international market, while lighter, less carbon-loaded Arabian crude stayed in the ground. Other OPEC members pumping oil at the heavy end of the spectrum of OPEC crudes include Iran and Angola. These countries, like Venezuela, have troubled economies, presided over by cash-strapped governments in dire need of higher revenue from oil exports. It is not co-incidental that Angola, Iran and Venezuela are the OPEC states that have been least compliant over the past 18 months with the record 4.2 million barrels per day of cuts that the group agreed upon in late 2008. The latest figures from the , included in its June , show Angola failing to implement any of its implied share of those cuts, Iran being 16 per cent compliant and Venezuela 33 per cent compliant. The members states showing the highest compliance levels were Saudi Arabia at 91 per cent, the UAE at 90 per cent and Kuwait at 83 per cent. Their Gulf neighbour Qatar, on the other hand, was pumping crude at well above its OPEC quota and was only 16 per cent compliant with the cuts. Iraq is the only OPEC member not bound by a production quota as it seeks to rebuild its oil production capacity after decades of was and misrule. That did not prevent its oil minister Hussain al Shahristani from this week that he was unhappy with other members flouting their quotas. Iraq may view the prospect of higher quotas for certain OPEC members with some alarm, as that could reduce the market's capacity to absorb a ramp-up of Iraqi oil exports without prices crashing. Nonetheless, to survive a debilitating power struggle, OPEC may have to accommodate the wishes of some of its less compliant members. Helping the world fight climate change is likely to be far down the group's agenda.