 |
OPEC Chief Rules Out Production Cuts in Near Future
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary General Ali Rodriguez said the oil-producing cartel is not considering crude production cuts in the coming future.
OPEC is waiting to see how the oil market reacts to the U.S.- led military attacks against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Rodriguez told Venezuela's Union Radio in an interview broadcast on Monday.
"We'll have to wait," Rodriguez said on Monday from London, adding OPEC also bears in mind economic slumps in developed countries.
Rodriguez's remarks took place as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in Geneva on the same day he would be driving OPEC leaders to "agree on the defense of the price of oil" and suggested the organization reduce crude oil output to boost falling prices.
A group of crudes that OPEC monitors fell 1.52 U.S. dollars last week, closing at 19.96 dollars a barrel on Friday, the most recent data available. OPEC has a price band system that requires the group to raise production by at least 500,000 barrels a day if the OPEC basket stays below 22 dollars for 10 consecutive days.
The mechanism would have been triggered Friday but the organization ignored it.
Chavez, who is now in Europe for a regional tour, was scheduled to meet World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Mike Moore and to take part in a U.N. meeting on desertification.
In This Section
|