Platts: Kuwait oil minister says OPEC may meet if oil prices fall further
Kuwait oil minister says OPEC may meet if oil prices fall further
Kuwait City (Platts)--15Jan2007
OPEC may hold emergency talks if oil prices deteriorate further, Kuwaiti
oil minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah said Monday. Quoted by official
news agency KUNA, the minister said Kuwait preferred to assess the impact of
the cartel's new 500,000 b/d crude production cut which comes into effect at
the beginning of February before holding emergency talks, but that much would
depend on how prices performed.
"We prefer to wait until February 1 to assess the impact of the Abuja
agreement and members might meet after that if that step does not lead to
preserving the price of oil," Sheikh Ali told KUNA.
Kuwait, he said, preferred not to meet before the ordinary OPEC meeting
scheduled for March 15 in Vienna. "But everything is possible and depends on
the market's circumstances," he said, noting that among factors affecting oil
prices were supply and demand, the weather, and geopolitical factors.
OPEC ministers have voiced concern about the sharp drop in oil prices
since the beginning of 2007 which on Friday took the OPEC crude basket to
$48.65/barrel, its lowest level since end-May 2005.
OPEC's new president, UAE oil minister Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli, told
Platts in an interview last Thursday that the producers' group was concerned
about the 12% fall in oil prices since the beginning of the year and was
monitoring markets carefully to determine whether there was a need to trim
supply further.
Hamli said OPEC was also very concerned that currently high consumer
stockpiles would build further in the second quarter of the year if OPEC
cuts totaling 1.7 million b/d did not drain excess supply. He said he was
consulting with all 11 members of the cartel by telephone and he did not see
the need for an emergency meeting ahead of the March 15 conference.
On Sunday, the presidents of Iran and Venezuela, strong allies within
OPEC who are also at odds with the US, called for a cut in the cartel's oil
production and stop the steep oil price slide though Algerian oil minister
Chakib Khelil and senior Iranian oil official Javad Yarjani said there was no
consensus to call an emergency meeting.
"We agreed this afternoon to coordinate our forces within OPEC,"
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said during a visit to Caracas by Iran's
hardline leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"Today we know that there is too much crude in the market, that's why we
will support the decisions that have been taken to reduce production and
protect the price of oil," AFP quoted him as saying.
Chavez emphasized that he was sending that message "to all the heads of
state in the OPEC countries to continue to strengthen our organization in this
direction."
Venezuela and Iran will "continue to act as always with one voice," said
Chavez, whose country is the only Latin American member of OPEC and one of the
biggest suppliers of crude oil to the US.
A Platts survey of December production last Friday showed that the 10
members bound by the group's output agreements produced an average 27 million
b/d in December, down 70,000 b/d from November, but some 700,000 b/d above its
current 26.3 million b/d output target, which will drop to 25.8 million b/d in
February.
International crude futures were trading either side of $53/barrel
Monday, some $8/barrel below levels traded at the start of 2007 and well below
peaks of more than $78/barrel traded in early August last year. |
