| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 14, 2001 |
OPEC Urges non-OPEC Producers to Share Burden of Cutting Oil Output to Steady Prices |
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In order to halt sliding oil prices, OPEC members were poised to cut crude production by more than 1 million barrels a day even without a corresponding decrease by oil-producing nations outside the cartel.
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In order to halt sliding oil prices, OPEC members were poised to cut crude production by more than 1 million barrels a day even without a corresponding decrease by oil-producing nations outside the cartel.
Oil ministers of the OPEC were to meet Wednesday to review their production targets amid a decrease in demand for crude and lingering economic uncertainty from the September terrorist attacks on the U.S..
OPEC member countries see a need to tighten their taps and have called on major non-OPEC producers to share the burden of cutting production. But except for Russia, which has pledged token support, no major non-OPEC producer seems willing cooperate.
U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. government to put more oil into America's emergency stockpile and for the first time fill the reserve to full capacity. This gave a modest boost to prices Tuesday.
Industry analysts said OPEC has little choice but to make a significant cut on its own. The drop in demand for crude has intensified in the wake of the attacks on the United States, and oil prices have tumbled by 25 percent since Sept. 11 alone.
OPEC's current production target is 23.2 million barrels a day, although its members are pumping about 800,000 barrels a day above their quotas.
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