Russia dismissed a recent oil price slump as a speculative blip Tuesday, September 25, and said it would work with OPEC to restore stable prices around $25 a barrel. In an interview with AFP, Russian oil minister Igor Yusufov said there was no need to fear an imminent price collapse, a day after crude futures tumbled almost four dollars a barrel to around $22 amid chronic concerns over world demand.
"We think the fall in prices was just speculative," Yusufov said. "The balance of supply of oil from OPEC and independent producers and demand for oil is keeping to equilibrium levels. There is no need for alarm that there will be a collapse in prices or a risk of a sharp rise," he told AFP. "We are going to work with OPEC to stabilize the market."
Yusufov said that ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that he had met with Tuesday gave no indications that they were mulling an output cut to arrest the sharp slump in prices.
"I didn't see such pressure (to cut)," he said after talks with OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez of Venezuela. "Tomorrow (Wednesday) you will see a decision to keep output level and restore normal prices around $25 " a barrel.
But he admitted that if prices did continue to fall sharply it would heap pressure on the Russian budget, which is largely reliant on its oil export for hard currency income. "Unfortunately if there is a sharp fall then it (budget pressure) is possible," he said, echoing sentiments expressed by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in Moscow earlier Tuesday. "But we still hope prices will be restored."
Russia has observer status with the OPEC oil-producing cartel, and Yusufov was to meet all the top ministers ahead of a formal get-together of OPEC energy chiefs to set production quotas. ― (AFP, Vienna)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
