OPEC HAVE AGREED to maintain its current 24,845 mn bpd crude production target and to meet next in Quito, Ecuador, on December 11, ministers said.
p>OPEC HAVE AGREED to maintain its current 24,845 mn bpd crude production target and to meet next in Quito, Ecuador, on December 11, ministers said.
"The message is there is enough oil in the market," Venezuela's Rafael Ramirez told reporters. "We think what we are producing is balancing the market," Libya's head of delegation, Shokri Ghanem, said. But Ghanem, who heads Libya's National Oil Corporation, was less sanguine about the current oil price levels because of falls in the value of the US dollar, in which most crude sales are denominated.
Ghanem was asked whether he was happy with oil prices between $75 and $85 p/b. "It is acceptable. But, as a matter of fact, the trend is going against OPEC because the dollar is getting eroded...we are losing on our real income," he said. "Libya in particular would like to see a higher price, even up to $100/b," he said.
OPEC's Ecuadorean president, Wilson Pastor-Morris, warned earlier in an opening address to the conference that, given the uncertain outlook for the global economy, high oil price volatility could return. "...the potential for a return to high price volatility remains," Pastor said, noting that the OPEC basket had fallen by 20 per cent over a three-week period in May.
