There will be no shortage

OPEC will cope with oil prices

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) yesterday at an extraordinary conference in Vienna, as expected, decided to increase the oil production quota by 1.5 million barrels per day - from the current 23 million to 24.5 million. According to the OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, the decision to increase quotas comes into force in February.

The main reasons for the significant increase in oil prices were the growing tensions in the Middle East, where hostilities in Iraq are expected to begin soon. In addition, the anti-government strike in Venezuela played a role, because of which this country practically stopped exporting oil and petroleum products and during the six weeks of the crisis the market was deprived of more than 2 million barrels of oil daily. If Venezuela resumes exports of raw materials, OPEC promises to return to current oil production volumes in the spring

Over the past three weeks, the cost of the “OPEC basket” (the average price of different types of oil produced by the participating countries) was higher than the corridor established by the cartel itself of 22-28 dollars per barrel. After yesterday's decision, prices should drop to the desired limits.

The day before the meeting, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi announced the possibility of OPEC maintaining total production volumes. “There is no shortage of oil,” the minister said. “There is only a shortage of Venezuelan oil.” The minister proposed maintaining the existing general quota, but within its framework, using the unused production capacity of Kuwait, Algeria, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates. However, the ministers of the participating countries did not agree with the opinion of their colleague.

If necessary, Russia can also help OPEC stabilize the market. As a representative of the Ministry of Energy told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, last week during his trip to the countries of the Middle East, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov discussed issues of cooperation with OPEC. Mr. Yusufov said that Russia is ready to increase or, conversely, reduce supplies to the foreign market, but at the same time its own interests will come first. According to a ministry representative, Russia does not yet plan to join the cartel, however, OPEC member countries no longer intend to threaten it with a “price war,” as happened last year.

Denis REBROV