Arab oil ministers call for more regional coordination. Some excerpts.
DAMASCUS, Syria (May 13, 1998 12:56 p.m. EDT
nando.net) -- Arab oil producers closed a
four-day conference on Wednesday with a call for
greater regional coordination in dealing with
petroleum markets.
On the sidelines, OPEC ministers continued to
express their displeasure with oil prices, but they
said decisions on production cuts were not likely to
be made before the cartel's next meeting on June 24
in Vienna, Austria.
Rilwanu Lukman, a Nigerian who serves as OPEC's
secretary-general, said the ministers would continue
to watch the market. In Vienna, they would take the
necessary steps "to keep the market in good shape,"
he said.
A deal to trim output in order to raise prices was
negotiated by Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico
at a meeting on March 22 in the Saudi capital
Riyadh. Producers pledged to cut back by some 1.7
million barrels a day. Since then, prices have risen
some, up to about $15 a barrel for light sweet crude
in the United States.
At this conference, Qatari and United Arab Emirates
ministers said they believed $18 to $20 would be a
more acceptable range.
Called the Arab Energy Conference, the meeting
drew 10 Arab ministers as well as senior oil officials
and energy expects from the Middle East and North
Africa. It was sponsored by the Organization of Arab
Petroleum Exporting Countries, which was founded
three decades ago to gather information on energy
worldwide and to encourage research.
The final statement said the delegates "asserted the
importance of more coordination between oil
countries in the international arena ... to open
international markets for exports, including
petrochemicals, with no obstacles and to fight efforts
by economic blocs to impose discriminatory
measures."
Oil producers have been especially upset in recent
years by energy taxes in industrialized countries that
have raised the price of oil products to consumers,
thereby lowering demand.
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