World oil prices fell on Wednesday with Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) ministers meeting in Iran under pressure from cartel kingpin Saudi Arabia to raise their crude production quotas owing to strong demand for global energy.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude, for delivery in April, fell 60 cents to $54,45 a barrel in electronic deals.
It had been quoted as high as $55,45 at one point on Tuesday, just below the record $55,67 reached on October 25 last year, amid concerns voiced by some Opec members that a hike in production will do little to ease soaring prices.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in April also fell by 60 cents to $53,25 a barrel in electronic deals on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer, has warned that it could act alone to boost output if it fails to convince sceptical Opec members immediately to up the 27-million barrels per day ceiling by 500 000.
”The current price of $55 is high and we want the prices to be between $40 and $50 a barrel,” Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi told the al-Hayat newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday.
He said that the Saudi push ”shows our interest not to inflict damage on economic growth, developing countries and market stability”.
Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said the Saudi formula ”seems to be the strongest proposal” and is likely to be adopted at the meeting in Isfahan.
‘Global economy can cope’
Meanwhile, Opec’s acting secretary general, Adnan Shihab-Eldin, played down the strong rise in oil prices in a newspaper interview on Wednesday, saying the global economy is in a better position to cope with price swings.
”I think the world economy is robust enough to be able to better cope with such price swings than 20 years ago,” the Kuwaiti told the daily Die Welt in an interview.
”The consequences of a 30% rise in prices are a lot smaller, particularly for industrialised nations whose economies are less dependent on energy,” Shihab-Eldin told the newspaper in comments reproduced in German.
”On the other hand, developing countries are much more sensitive to oil-price fluctuations,” he added. — Sapa-AFP