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OPEC Expects to Hold High Level Talks With Consumers at Riyadh
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to meet with senior officials of the world's principal oil consumers, by November 17, at Riyadh, for holding constructive talks to make the sensitive oil market stable.
Secretary General of OPEC, the Nigerian, Rilwanu Lukman announced Monday here that producers look forward to the participation of U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and European Union (EU) top officials during the Seventh International Energy Forum.
According to Lukman, producers have registered positive signs from these countries to hold a dialog that until now has not been possible, for industrialized countries, above all, the members of the Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have held a "critical attitude and of opposition against OPEC."
Nonetheless, the OPEC senior official said that for 18 months, a "gradual change in this attitude" has been noticed, according to these countries' acceptance of "OPEC's capability" to influence the market, as well as a number of factors affecting oil prices.
He said that these do not only depend on oil supply and reminded that OPEC has done its share this year by raising its total production in 3.2 million barrels of oil per day, and at the same time is prepared to increase it even more should the market require it.
During the Riyadh meeting "we hope a wide exchange of points of view between producers and consumers to take place," the secretary general of OPEC said.
In face of the current crisis, caused by the high prices of oil and its derivates, which reached the highest levels in the last decade (almost 37 U.S. dollars barely two weeks ago), he explained that the main goal will be to look for new ways to get a "general stability."
On the agenda other issues related to the oil industry will be also dealt with, "such as technology and environmental problems," he noted.
Regarding the issue of taxations on oil products in industrialized nations, in particular the EU members -- where they are particularly high -- in which they make up most of the resulting price the consumer pays, he said the matter is up to the governments of those nations only.
Last Thursday, during the plenary of the second summit of OPEC, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, called on the leaders of the 10 countries participating in that meeting, to participate in an "informal" meeting with consuming countries to solve their differences. This proposal appeared in the final declaration.
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