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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (3258)	11/28/2005 5:41:28 AM
From: manalagi	Respond to of 24213

Sunday, 27, November, 2005 (25, Shawwal, 1426) Mail Article \| Print Article \| Comment on Article OPEC Not Considering Cutting Production at Next Meeting, Naimi Says Anees Al-Qedaihy, Arab News RIYADH, 27 November 2005 — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is not considering cutting of production during its meeting in Kuwait on Dec. 12, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said yesterday. Speaking to reporters after attending a meeting of GCC oil ministers here, Naimi also called on leading oil consuming states to stop blaming the OPEC for their “suffering” from high crude prices, which he said were due to taxes they impose on end-users. “OPEC ministers are not thinking of cutting production during their next meeting in Kuwait,” the Saudi minister said, adding that OPEC was seeking to preserve balanced oil prices. “Global inventories today are in a very comfortable position. As a matter of fact, supply today is higher than demand,” Naimi said. “Prices have started to stabilize,” he added. The option of OPEC pumping an additional two million bpd is now “on the table. What happens at the meeting, I will tell you when we meet,” he said. The organization will “study the market then, and the decision will be taken accordingly,” Naimi said, adding he expected a growth in demand in 2006. OPEC’s current official production ceiling is 28 million bpd, and it maintains the option of pumping the extra two million bpd if demand requires. Prices are now in the range of $55-58 a barrel after reaching a record high of more than $70 in late August. Naimi echoed a call by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah last week on leading consumer states to cut taxes on petroleum products. “We hope that major consuming countries will stop blaming the burden on the consumer on OPEC. What they should do is look at... where is the source of the burden,” Naimi said. “The source of the burden is both the tax and the VAT which are imposed on the individual. So it is not fair to say that the consumer is suffering because of the price of crude oil. He is suffering because of the high burden of taxes on him,” he added. Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah said OPEC would consider “all options” when it convenes next month. “I’m not saying there (will be) a cut or not. I said every time we met this... has been the practice. We will discuss all the options,” he said. “There should be no shortage of supply, (nor) should there be a big surplus on the market,” Attiyah said. Iran’s OPEC envoy, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, was quoted as saying yesterday the group did not need to alter its output quotas at the December meeting. The meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) oil ministers opened with an appeal to consumers to reciprocate the “wise and flexible” policies of GCC oil producers by refraining from applying protectionist and “discriminatory” measures. The GCC is committed to “guaranteeing oil supplies and meeting growing demand for crude” and to coordinate with other producers as well as with consuming countries in order to help “improve the performance of the world economy,” GCC chief Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah said in a statement read on his behalf. But the GCC policies “will not bear fruit in terms of achieving the desired stability on oil markets... without the cooperation of the other parties and without refraining from pursuing protectionist policies and laws (which impose) taxes and discriminate against oil,” the GCC secretary-general said. Bahrain’s State Minister Abdul Hussein ibn Ali Mirza said the topics discussed during the meeting included unifying the GCC states’ stands on the Kyoto Protocol and the UN pact to curb global-warming gases during a conference on the protocol’s future opening in Montreal tomorrow. — With input from agencies arabnews.com