Presidents and sovereigns of the OPEC oil-producing cartel arrived in Caracas Tuesday for summit clouded by worldwide concern and protests over soaring oil prices.
But the meeting, only the second in the 11-member group's 40-year history, is unlikely to provide any immediate concrete relief for overheated markets or oil-consuming nations.
The formal summit Wednesday and Thursday will provide a "response" to industrialized countries' fears, but no new crude oil, at least not immediately, delegates say.
"There is more crude than needed on the market," said OPEC research director Shokri Ghanem ahead of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s summit.
And he expressed confidence that prices, which have soared to 10-year highs in recent weeks, will come down. "I think prices will go down somewhere between 25 and 30 dollars," he told journalists.
OPEC ministers have been gathering since Monday in the Venezuelan capital amid heavy security around the fortress-like hotel where the summit is taking place.
Heads of state arriving during the day Tuesday included Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, Indonesia's Abdurrahman Wahid and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Caracas meeting was scheduled long ago but which has taken on particular importance amid the threat of a new world oil crisis.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez used a national TV address late Monday to stress that the summit aims to broach wider issues including "poverty, inequalities, foreign debt and sovereignty of nations."
Several ministers insisted that the Caracas gathering will not discuss a new production increase, pushed for by oil-consuming countries to bring down crude prices.
OPEC has boosted supplies three times within a year including an 800,000-barrel a day boost earlier this month, and is set to discuss a further increase at a ministerial meeting in Vienna on November 12.
Organizers have offered some hope for a message from the summit to industrialized countries facing protests and warnings of economic slowdown -- although it was unclear how concrete this might be.
"OPEC will announce Thursday, when the summit closes, its position on the demands of the IMF and the G7 for producers to act to reduce high crude prices," said Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Valero.
He specified Tuesday that the summit will specifically broach the issue of dialogue between OPEC and consumer countries. "A precondition for this dialogue will be agreed during the summit," he said.
The severity of the global oil crisis was underlined by the United States' decision last week to tap into the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), a move not taken since the Gulf War a decade ago.
Soaring crude prices, which surged to 35 dollars a barrel in recent weeks, dipped in response to 30.40 dollars at the close of trading in London Tuesday -- but analysts warn the slump could well be temporary.
The price spikes have sparked protests around the globe, notably in Europe, where blockades initially in France have spread across the continent in the last few weeks.
Meanwhile it emerged Tuesday that the European Union was mulling use of its strategic reserves. French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius has proposed the idea, according to Belgium's finance minister in Prague.
The main outcome of the Caracas summit will be a solemn final declaration, whose highlights include a commitment to holding such summits more regularly, reportedly every five years.
Notable absentees here include Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who has sent his vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan; Libya's Moamar Khadafi, replaced by Tripoli's Revolutionary Council member Mustafa al-Kharroubi; and Saudi King Fahd represented by his brother Crown Prince Abdullah -- CARACAS (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
