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UAE says OPEC undecided on oil price meeting
AFP
ABU DHABI
Petroleumworld.com 01 11 06OPEC members are "concerned" by the plunging price of oil, but they have yet to decide whether to meet over the issue, the United Arab Emirates' oil minister said Thursday.
"OPEC is concerned" by the slide, which has seen the price of oil fall by around 14 percent since the start of the year, but the cartel has "not yet decided to hold an emergency meeting," Mohammed al-Hamili said.
The next regular meeting of the 11-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is planned for March 15 in Vienna, where it has its headquarters.
"Contacts are underway with OPEC's oil and energy ministers to examine the latest developments in the international oil market," said Hamili in comments carried by the official WAM news agency.
World oil prices fell under 53 dollars per barrel on Thursday, a level unseen since the middle of 2005, as warm weather in the northern hemisphere weakened demand for heating oil.
London's Brent North Sea crude for February delivery sank to 52.60 dollars per barrel in electronic trading -- a low last seen on June 13, 2005. The contract then recovered to 53.60 dollars, down nine cents from Wednesday.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, tumbled to 52.94 dollars per barrel in Thursday's early electronic deals -- the lowest point since June 9, 2005. Later, it stood at 53.65 dollars per barrel, down 37 cents from Wednesday.
Such sharp falls prompted speculation that OPEC could soon hold an emergency production meeting.
Kuwait said Tuesday that it was opposed to such a move, adding it was sticking to an OPEC decision in December to cut output by 500,000 barrels per day from February.
This followed an OPEC-wide reduction of 1.2 million barrels per day that came into effect in November.
AFP 11 1347 GMT 01 07
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