Crisis-hit Venezuela to press for change in Opec's policy
Almost a year ago Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s long-serving former oil minister, emerged from a tense meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) looking red faced and furious.
Within the privacy of Opec’s steel-clad secretariat building in Vienna’s quiet Helferstorferstrasse,
Ramirez had remonstrated angrily with his counterpart from Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Naimi, about the urgent need for the group of major oil producers to push up the price of crude back to a level around $100 per barrel...
In a recent interview with Reuters, Ramirez said he wants Opec to cut production by introducing a series of price bands starting at $70 per barrel. The proposals he said would be formally presented for discussion at a meeting of “technical experts” which Opec is convening on October 21. This has potentially put Venezuela and its close allies within Opec, including Algeria, Nigeria and Iran, on a collision course with Al-Naimi and his Gulf Arab clique who still appear determined to maintain their current strategy.
According to Opec’s former president, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, a change in policy is unlikely without any cuts in production being matched by countries outside the group such as Russia and Mexico. (by Andrew Critchlow, Commodities editor. The Telegraph)
Ramirez had remonstrated angrily with his counterpart from Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Naimi, about the urgent need for the group of major oil producers to push up the price of crude back to a level around $100 per barrel...
In a recent interview with Reuters, Ramirez said he wants Opec to cut production by introducing a series of price bands starting at $70 per barrel. The proposals he said would be formally presented for discussion at a meeting of “technical experts” which Opec is convening on October 21. This has potentially put Venezuela and its close allies within Opec, including Algeria, Nigeria and Iran, on a collision course with Al-Naimi and his Gulf Arab clique who still appear determined to maintain their current strategy.
According to Opec’s former president, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, a change in policy is unlikely without any cuts in production being matched by countries outside the group such as Russia and Mexico. (by Andrew Critchlow, Commodities editor. The Telegraph)