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Saudi wants just one Opec meeting a year

Riyadh, June 14, 2014

Saudi Arabia has suggested the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meet just once a year, rather than twice, a sharp reduction from the days when the group met for up to seven times a year in the early 2000s.

The Opec meetings since 2012 have produced no policy change and Wednesday's gathering in Vienna was no exception, sticking with its production target of 30 million barrels per day (bpd).

The 12-member group used to give traders more to worry about, meeting several times a year, convening emergency meetings at short notice and sometimes making surprise decisions as it tried to micro-manage the oil market.

But with the biggest consumer, the US, experiencing an oil boom and prices comfortably anchored around $110 a barrel, Opec meetings have dropped down the list of supply risks for oil traders.

Top Opec producer Saudi Arabia suggested in the meeting on Wednesday that Opec meet just once a year, three Opec delegates said, but other countries rejected the idea and the next gathering is scheduled for November 27.

"The meetings are quiet and there is nothing much to discuss except for the issue of the secretary general," said a delegate. "But it can't be changed as internal policy says Opec has to meet twice a year."

The delegate was referring to Opec's Statute, which says the group shall hold two ordinary meetings a year, and its long-running deadlock over who should succeed Abdullah Al Badri as Opec's secretary general.

The unchanged 30 million bpd output target leaves the door open for Saudi Arabia to tweak output unofficially depending on demand or in response to supply outages in other producer countries.

Saudi Arabia holds most of Opec's idle production capacity and its Gulf allies the UAE and Kuwait smaller amounts, giving them more influence. Most other Opec members cannot raise output and outages in Libya, Nigeria, Iraq and Iran have cut their supply.-Reuters
 




Tags: Saudi Arabia | Opec |

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