The Emirates agreed with the United States in talks Sunday on the need for oil price stability, despite differences between producers and Washington on the size of a planned output cut.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) Oil Minister Obeid bin Saif al-Nassiri, after talks with US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, called for a "fair price" but declined to specify the scope of the cut to be decided Wednesday at an OPEC meeting in Vienna.
"The UAE is concerned over stability on the oil market but it hopes for a fair and adequate price for producers," Nassiri said, quoted by the Gulf state's WAM news agency.
He called for a balance between supply and demand to prevent any dramatic rise or fall in prices.
On the US efforts to deter OPEC from any "severe" cuts, Nassiri said: "The US administration is defending its interests as a consumer country and we are defending ours as producers.
"But there is always a way to agree on a fair and adequate price."
Nassiri also called for the cooperation of non-OPEC producers and said output was "still running high and there is an excess in supply," despite the disruption of Iraqi exports.
Richardson, whose country is the world's top oil consumer, said the UAE had agreed to take the US view into account and reiterated that $25 a barrel was a reasonable price target.
Abu Dhabi is set to fall in line with an OPEC cut in the range of 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), UAE oil ministry official Ibrahim Ismail said.
The UAE backs an output cut to stabilize prices at $25 a barrel, a price target also supported by Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter and producer.
Richardson traveled on to Qatar, the third leg of a Gulf tour launched in Riyadh on Saturday and also due to take in Kuwait, the Qatari news agency QNA said, clarifying an earlier report that he would wind up the tour in Doha.
In Riyadh, Richardson said he had not received an answer from kingdom over the size of the OPEC cutback, following talks with Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi.
Richardson and Nuaimi "insisted on the need for stability on the oil market to serve the interests of consumers and producers, and to contribute in a positive way to the world economy," the Saudi oil ministry said.
The outgoing US administration official warned that a large reduction in production would push up prices and have an impact on the world economy.
"I have come with a message that oil-producing nations should not act precipitously to make severe cuts in production which would continue the instability that we have seen over the last two years," he said in Riyadh.
Richardson, who already held talks with OPEC president Chakib Khelil in Paris on Friday, said after the Gulf tour he would meet in London with Venezuela's new energy minister, Alvaro Silva Calderon.
The US official has proposed that a reduction of one million bpd "could be sufficient," according to Khelil.
"The United States is in favor of a cut in two stages of half a million barrels each time, the first during the first quarter and the second at a later stage," the Algerian energy minister said.
Khelil told AFP that the cartel was likely to decide on a cut of between 1.5 million and two million bpd, but a date had yet to be agreed for when it would be brought into effect or whether it would be phased in.
A consensus was gathering for "at least" 1.5 million bpd, amid concerns of a "dramatic" price collapse if the cartel failed to act decisively, he said. – (AFP, Vienna)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
