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OPEC to meet in Qatar on cut in output
AFP
DOHA
Petroleumworld.com 10 16 06
Qatar's Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said Sunday an extraordinary meeting of OPEC will be held in Doha on Thursday to discuss a cut in production to check the fall in the price of crude oil.
The official QNA news agency, quoting a statement from the minister's office, said the extraordinary meeting of the cartel would held in Doha on October 19 after an invitation by Attiyah.
The OPEC oil ministers would discuss "details of a reduction of one million barrels per day (bpd) in the cartel's effective production in an effort to check the fall in prices" on the international market, the statement said.
The 11 members of the cartel agreed last Wednesday on the principle of a reduction of a million barrels a day, according to the serving OPEC president, Nigerian Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru.
In Lagos, Levi Ajuonuma, a spokesman for the current Nigerian presidency of OPEC earlier told AFP the cartel would hold "a consultative meeting" for one day in Doha on October 19.
"It will be a one-day consultative meeting at which the agenda will focus on the question of a reduction in output and its distribution among member states," Ajuonuma said.
"Decisions will be announced on the same day," he added.
Current OPEC output is fixed at 28 million bpd, not including Iraq which is excluded from the quota system.
The cartel members are currently producing less crude oil than authorised under their quotas, with real output estimated at between 27.5 and 27.8 million bpd.
The next formal meeting of the cartel is set for December 14 in the Nigerian capital Abuja, but faced with a huge drop in the price of crude of 25 percent, the OPEC member states have been seeking ways to curb the fall.
Prevaricating among member states over the past two weeks on a consensus to reduce output, and also on whether to hold an extraordinary meeting before the scheduled December summit, only served to drive the price of crude down even further as international markets doubted OPEC's determination.
A one-million-bpd fall in output to 27 million bpd would in reality mean a reduction of just some 500,000 barrels a day, which some member states may deem to be insufficient.
AFP 15 1859 GMT 10 06
Copyright© 2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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