OPEC STANDS FOR SERIES

Mr Chavez's idea to make OPEC a more political organisation was announced previously and his plans are sure to run into opposition from the Saudi kingdom.Īnother leftist South American country, Ecuador, is set to seal its return to OPEC at the summit after leaving the cartel in 1992.įriday's blunder was an embarrassment for OPEC and provided a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the organisation. King Abdullah also announced that Saudi Arabia was to invest $US300 million to develop technology to tackle climate change. In a gaffe late on Friday, a private meeting of OPEC oil, foreign and finance ministers was mistakenly broadcast to journalists, revealing a spat between Saudi Arabia and Iran about the waning US currency.

The talks are intended to map out the strategic direction of OPEC, which produces about 40 per cent of world oil, but the group is divided on a number of issues. The event comes at a time of tension on world oil markets, with the cartel under pressure to increase its output to help calm record crude prices that had threatened to breach $US100 a barrel 10 days ago. OPEC's 12-strong membership is dominated by pro-Western Gulf states but includes an anti-US bloc of Iran and Venezuela. His remarks were tempered by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the OPEC kingpin and key US regional ally, who said that 'oil is an energy for construction and must not become an instrument for conflict'. 'OPEC should set itself up as an active geopolitical agent.' It is stronger than it has ever been in the past. It is the underlying reason,' Mr Chavez said, pointing to the war in Iraq and US threats against Iran. He urged assembled leaders for OPEC meeting for only the third time in the cartel's 47-year history, to club together for geopolitical reasons. 'If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil could reach $US150 or even $US200,' he said. The fiery leftist leader warned that crude prices could double from their current already-record level of near $US100 a barrel if the United States attacked Iran or Venezuela. In his opening speech, Mr Chavez also urged the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to be actively involved in foreign policy. Further restrictions could come if the variant is found to be more harmful or contagious than previous versions.OPEC leaders have begun a summit in Saudi Arabia, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez issuing a chilling warning about oil prices. But the spread of the Omicron variant, which has already resulted in countries blocking travel routes to try to slow transmission, has arguably had a bigger impact on prices. Other countries like China and Japan have also indicated that they will release crude too. will release crude from its strategic stockpiles to curb the growth in gasoline prices. President Joe Biden has already announced that the U.S.

Rising Covid cases have curbed demand in some parts of the world, and action by oil-consuming countries has made it clear that the political implications of $100 oil make hitting that number less likely.

OPEC STANDS FOR SERIES

supply growth and weaker seasonal oil demand to keep prices supported above $65 per barrel.”Ī series of events over the past month have come together to reverse the enormous momentum that oil prices had built up over the year. Bill Farren-Price, director of intelligence at Enverus Intelligence Research, wrote before the meeting that “we continue to expect that OPEC will have to cut production sometime in the first half of 2022 in the face of surging U.S. The group is expected to fully restore production by September on the current schedule.Īnalysts had been mixed ahead of the Thursday meeting, with some expecting OPEC to act now and others projecting that it would stick to its plans. OPEC will increase production by 400,000 barrels a day in January 2022, in line with its previous plans. WTI is down 22% from the high of $84.65 it reached on Oct. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 1.1% to $66.29. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.9% to $69.47 per barrel.

Opec stands for