We will have to see what monday brings.....
But we know (don't know) how the market reacts to news...regardless of real values, etc....
This article could cause that instability - even though it would be out in the future (If anything actually materializes)
By Steven Swindells
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Powerful oil states in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may cut supplies to the industrialized world in another attempt to lift prices from their lowest level in nine years.
OPEC President and UAE Petroleum and Minerals Resources Minister Obeid bin Saif al-Nasseri said on Saturday that the 11-member cartel would be willing to curb exports when ministers meet in June if other global producers were cooperative.
"If the oil price stays where it is now there will be a lot of talk about further cuts and we don't rule out any possibility. If it is necessary, I think this can happen," Nasseri told Reuters in an interview at his offices.
World benchmark Brent for June delivery closed in London on Friday at $13.90 a barrel, compared with more than $20 last year, slashing revenues of OPEC states which rely on petrodollars for around 80 percent of government income.
Oil prices have stagnated despite a ground-breaking deal in Riyadh last month between OPEC and non-OPEC producers that aimed to shave some two percent from world supplies.
OPEC ministers agreed at an emergency session last month to contribute a cut of 1.245 million barrels per day (bpd) to the so-called Riyadh pact, its first output cut in a decade.
Despite the cuts, prices have remained capped by surplus supply, faltering demand in Asia because of the region's economic crisis, increased flows from Iraq under the United Nations oil-for-food deal and warmer than expected weather in the northern hemisphere.
"The fair price we would look for...it should be above $20...Although the price has come up a little bit since the Riyadh pact, the price is still low," Nasseri said.
Nasseri's comments echoed remarks by Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi, who has said the group would be willing to consider further cuts if necessary at the June 24 meeting in Vienna.
Nasseri stressed that OPEC would swallow further reductions only if there was "cooperation and understanding" from non-OPEC states.
He said talks between both groups were continuing.
"The cut depends on the oil price and also an understanding between the two groups.
"We feel that the responsibility of the oil prices does not rely only on OPEC members...The non-OPEC countries have also a responsibility and interest in seeing the oil price a little bit higher," the OPEC president said.
Nasseri said non-OPEC Syria was one of the countries that would be cooperative.
Syria was not among the countries that signed up to the original Riyadh pact.
"I think now we are in a new era of cooperation between OPEC member countries and non-OPEC," said Nasseri, who has day-to-day control over the
UAE's 2.3 million barrels of daily oil production.
Nasseri said it was unclear what volume needed to be cut from the market, but he said reductions should be made on a pro-rata basis.
OPEC states -- which account for some 40 percent of world supplies -- were committed to carrying out the cuts under the Riyadh pact but it was still too
early to say what volume of crude had actually been removed from the market. |
