PARIS, 8 April 2003 — The president of OPEC said yesterday he had called a meeting of the 11-member organization later this month to discuss crude prices, adding he believed there was already a surplus of oil on the market.
“The market is facing a surplus today, not a shortage,” said Abdullah ibn Hamad Al-Attiyah, the Qatari energy minister and president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Al-Attiyah said he had contacted his fellow energy ministers from OPEC’s other 10 member countries to call a meeting in Vienna on April 24, to assess the impact of the outbreak of war in Iraq on global oil prices. OPEC had not been due to meet to discuss oil prices until the extraordinary ministerial meeting scheduled for June 11 in Doha, Qatar. Speaking after talks with his French counterpart Nicole Fontaine in Paris, Al-Attiyah also said Iraq would remain an OPEC member after the war ends.
Asked whether the possibility of lowering OPEC members’ current production quotas, Al-Attiyah said: “In all meetings the agenda is open. We may discuss a cut in production.”
He noted that oil prices have fallen close to $22 per barrel on global markets — the lower limit of a price band from $22 to $28 in which the group aims to keep prices. “We’re reaching very (close) to 22 dollars,” he said.
Al-Attiyah’s comments helped oil prices rebound from a near-five month nadir reached earlier yesterday after US troops entered the heart of Baghdad.
In late London trading, the price of reference Brent North Sea crude for May delivery was up four cents per barrel at $24.72.
The New York light sweet crude benchmark May contract showed a loss of 10 cents per barrel at $28.52 in early deals.
Oil prices have plunged by about 30 percent from their pre-war peak in London and New York, with increased supplies from major oil producers helping to calm the feverish market. But OPEC members are likely to take steps to reduce supplies if prices keep falling in expectation of an end to the war, analysts said.
Commerzbank analyst Jon Rigby said in London: “There is a feeling that once the war is over, the market will be oversupplied.” “OPEC countries are also concerned, and ensuring that they don’t oversupply the market.