Consultations are under way between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to ensure stability of the oil market, an adviser to Saudi Arabia's oil minister said Monday, November 5.
"There are ongoing consultations between some OPEC members and others outside the cartel with the aim of reaching a reasonable agreement and restoring stability to the oil market," Ibrahim Al-Mohanna, an adviser to Minister Ali Nuaimi, told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference here.
"The impression is that market stability will return and prices will firm up," he said. Mohanna said Oman, a non-OPEC producer, had "promised to cooperate fully" with members of the oil cartel to boost prices.
"There is a consensus that any (necessary) action must be taken, including reducing output, in order to guarantee price stability," he said, adding that "everything will become clear before OPEC's (November 14 ministerial) conference" in Vienna.
There exists a measure of cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC producers, Mohanna said. "Our major concern in Saudi Arabia is to ensure price stability," he said, noting that "the global economic slowdown will have an impact on the oil market."
OPEC has sought the support of non-OPEC producers to cut output in a bid to boost prices that have slumped to two-year lows since the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. — (AFP, Riyadh)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
