Opec 'will meet if crude prices drop'

18/03/2007| IslamWeb

Opec would hold an "emergency meeting" if oil prices were to fall, Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying in comments published yesterday, speaking after the group's March 15 meeting in Vienna."If oil prices in international markets go down, certainly Opec will make new decisions by holding an emergency meeting," Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said, Iran's Jahan-e Eqtesad newspaper reported.

"If prices stay the same, at the current level, Opec will not make new decisions," he said on Friday. The minister did not give details on what kind of oil price declines would prompt Opec to hold an emergency meeting.

Oil deepened losses below 58 US dollar a barrel on Friday on worries about a wobbly US economy, with Opec's widely-expected decision on Thursday to keep oil output curbs having little impact.

At its meeting, Opec agreed to keep oil output restraints in place, balancing rapidly declining oil stocks in consumer countries against the risk recent selling in share markets could herald an economic downturn.

Opec, which pumps over a third of the world's oil, had agreed cuts totalling 1.7 million barrels per day, or six per cent of supplies, at its previous two meetings.

Ministers were concerned that two waves of selling on global equity markets this year could presage a bigger sell-off that would hurt economic growth and oil demand.

Opec president and UAE Oil Minister Mohammed bin Dhaen Al Hamli may convene another meeting in June, three months before the next scheduled meeting, if necessary.

Its next ordinary meeting would be a session in Vienna on September 11.

In its monthly report, Opec added that world oil demand would grow by 1.5pc in 2007, matching its forecasts in January and February.

PHOTO CAPTION

OPEC Secretary General Abdallah Salem El-Badri (L) and United Arab Emirates' Oil Minister and OPEC President Mohamed bin Dhaen al-Hamli talk at the beginning of a news conference in the OPEC headquarters in Vienna March 15, 2007. (REUTERS)