UAE Minister of energy Mohammed bin Dhaen Al Hameli affirmed today that OPEC member countries’ commitment to provide adequate, secure and affordable oil supplies to the consumers through continuing their huge investments in developing spare capacity production.
OPEC appeared ready to focus on its old problem of member compliance with production limits at its meeting in Vienna, as oil ministers mostly said they were happy with oil prices – a clear suggestion they wouldn’t cut output.
Qatar’s Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said on Sunday that OPEC was likely to keep oil production targets unchanged when it next meets in September.
Rival oil supplies and the sluggish pace of recovery in world consumption will shrink demand for OPEC’s crude oil next year, the producer group said on Tuesday.
Why is OPEC expecting a sharp drop in oil prices? First, much of the rise in oil prices has followed the rally on Wall Street. Investors reasoned that higher stock prices means that business is doing better and hence a need for more oil, and prices rise.
The world’s biggest gas exporters have held their first official summit since forming an organization with members voicing concern over falling gas prices.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sees no need to raise oil production to counter high oil prices, the OPEC President said on Sunday.
Opec cut its forecast for world oil demand in 2009 further yesterday but said the worst appeared to be over for the market, adding to signs of a turning point in the outlook for oil.
Oil prices could reach $80-$90 a barrel by early next year, but OPEC will not increase its output until a huge amount of over-supply has been absorbed, the group’s Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri told the Reuters Global Energy Summit.
On Sunday, Abdalla el-Badri, Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, warned that oil prices of $50 per barrel are “insufficient for continued investment” and urged a $70 barrel.
