The OPEC oil producers' cartel will meet again in November but could act to keep prices stable before then, United Arab Emirates oil minister Obeid Bin Saif Al-Nasiri said Thursday, October 4.
"OPEC will hold an extraordinary meeting in November but could intervene (sooner) to counter rapid developments in the oil market if the situation requires," he told the UAE's official WAM news agency.
In a statement earlier from the Vienna headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Secretary General Ali Rodriguez dismissed reports of an emergency meeting this weekend in Vienna to discuss slumping crude prices, but said its ministers remain in close contact.
OPEC's president, Algerian oil minister Chakib Khelil, had been cited from Algiers as saying there would be an "urgent meeting" this weekend in Vienna, either late Saturday or Sunday. In addition Venezuela's Energy Minister Alvaro Silva Calderon said in Caracas that OPEC would hold an extraordinary meeting, possibly on Sunday in Vienna, to look for ways to stabilize oil prices.
In Vienna, Rodriguez "dismissed media reports that the organization planned to hold an extraordinary ministerial meeting this weekend," said a statement carried by the grouping's own news agency, OPECNA.
"Oil and energy ministers from the 11 member countries (are) continuing to monitor oil market developments, and (are) maintaining close contact by telephone," it cited the Venezuelan former OPEC president as saying.
"Rodriguez pointed out that the ministers were watching market developments very carefully and were ready to respond if and when necessary," said the statement. The basket oil price used by OPEC to set its output slipped again to $19.65 below the $22 floor of the organization’s target range for a seventh trading day, its secretariat said on Thursday.
Under a price mechanism system aimed at keeping prices within a $22-28 range, OPEC could cut production by 500,000 barrels a day if the basket price remains below $22 a barrel for 10 trading days in a row. The 10th day will be reached on Friday if the basket price, an average of seven world crudes, remains. — (AFP, Abu Dhabi)
© Agence France Presse
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
