Gulf states vow to stabilise market ahead of Opec meet

Oil ministers of the world’s leading producers in the Gulf wound up a joint meeting yesterday by vowing to achieve price stability on the international markets, ahead of an Opec meeting.

“The oil market has witnessed many developments that obliged us as major producers to counter more challenges in the way of achieving stability of the oil price and markets,” Kuwait’s Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah told the gathering.

Assistant secretary general of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), Mohammad al-Mazroui, said the six-nation alliance is coordinating its oil policies closely with the “aim to stabilise the international markets.”

Al-Mazroui said the GCC states, which together pump just under one fifth of the world crude supplies, are working to “consolidate a balanced policy… in a bid to stop sharp swings on oil prices.”

The GCC states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Thursday in Vienna to assess member output levels against a backdrop of steady prices and a huge jump in Iraq’s estimated reserves.

Oil has traded at roughly between $70 and $80 per barrel for the past year. It had plummeted to $32 in December 2008 from a record high of $147 in July of the same year, because of the global financial crisis.

During their Kuwait meeting, the ministers discussed activating the GCC unified economic agreement to promote internal investments and joint oil projects, a final communique said.

The ministers also discussed ways of expanding the role of the Gulf’s private sector in the oil industry.