OPEC to take action in March: Oil minister
OPEC to take action in March: Oil minister
DUBAI (AFP): OPEC will adopt measures to try to bolster oil
prices at the 11-member cartel's next meeting on March 23, United
Arab Emirates Oil Minister Obaid ibn Saif al-Nasseri pledged on
Friday.
"OPEC has decided to give itself a better chance to consult
and evaluate the oil market before meeting towards the end of
March to take measures to improve the situation," he told the
official WAM news agency.
The comments came after the Organization for Petroleum
Exporting Countries failed Thursday in Vienna to agree any
changes to current policy despite record low prices.
In Saudi Arabia, the newspaper Al-Jazirah blamed oil producing
countries for failing to respect quotas.
"The answers lies quite simply in total respect for production
quotas and for the (reduction) agreement recently reached between
OPEC members and non-members," said the daily which carries
government views.
"If they are not respected, market prices will continue to
fall and producing countries," will suffer, it added.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah warned
Thursday that the failure of the Vienna talks "will not lead to
stability and improvement on the markets."
In London, oil prices fell to a record low Thursday of 10.85
dollars a barrel, but on Friday morning Brent for January
delivery traded at US$11.05.
Al-Sabah told the official news agency KUNA that economic
crisis in Asia, Russia and Latin America made it difficult to see
any seasonal increase in demand.
"Oil ministers agreed (in Vienna) to maintain the current
policy," he said, adding that "adequate measures" to end the
slump would be taken in March.
The markets had been expecting as a minimum an extension of
the output cuts of 2.6 million barrels a day agreed earlier this
year.
The specialist Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) said last
week that OPEC reduced output to 26.85 million barrels a day in
October from 27.27 million in September, but this was still above
OPEC's own forecast of demand for its oil next year of 26.5
million barrels a day.
The OPEC members are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait,
Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and
Venezuela.