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Wednesday, Sep. 16, 1998
OPEC may cut oil production further to try to boost prices
Shrinking Asian demand has led to a glut of crude
Associated Press
SINGAPORE - The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may curtail pumping even more to bolster oil prices, the president of the 11-nation cartel said Tuesday.
With a glut of crude on world markets and lower demand because of the Asian financial crisis, OPEC ministers might decide to take further action when they hold their policymaking meeting in November, said Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri, who is oil minister of the United Arab Emirates.
``It might be possible to look for more cuts,'' al-Nasseri told reporters while attending the Asia-Pacific Petroleum Conference.
OPEC pledged in June to slash output by 2.6 million barrels a day to drive up oil prices, which are near 10-year lows. Non-OPEC countries pledged to cut back an additional 500,000 barrels per day.
World oil prices started to plummet last year, dropping from $25 per barrel in 1997 to between $12 and $14 per barrel this year, because production had increased while demand - notably from struggling Asia - subsided.
The move by OPEC to cut production, which took effect July 1 and has now been mostly implemented, aims at driving the price back to about $18 per barrel. It has so far been largely ineffective.
``The current low oil price environment is unacceptable to our countries,'' al-Nasseri told the conference.
He also said OPEC members had in the past increased oil production capacity on the assumption that rapid economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region would continue.
But he said the region's energy demand will fall well below pre-crisis forecast levels.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web