Reuters :
OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and fellow member the United Arab Emirates signalled on Wednesday they were unlikely to push for a major change in oil output at the group’s meeting this week to prop up prices that have sunk by a third since June.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said he expected the oil market “to stabilise itself eventually”, after talks with non-OPEC member Russia on Tuesday yielded no pledge from Moscow to tackle a global oil glut jointly.
OPEC’s meeting on Thursday will be one of its most crucial in recent years, with oil having tumbled to below $78 a barrel due to the US shale boom and slower economic growth in China and Europe.
Core Gulf oil producer the UAE sided with Naimi, saying oil prices would soon stabilise, while ramping up pressure on non-OPEC producers.
“This is not a crisis that requires us to panic … we have seen (prices) way lower,” UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui told Reuters.
“I think everyone needs to play a role in balancing the market, not OPEC unilaterally”.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said some OPEC members, although not Iran, were now gearing up for a battle over market share and he insisted that producers outside the group needed to participate in any OPEC-led output cut.
“Some OPEC members believe that this is the time where we need to defend market share … All the experts in the market believe we have oversupply in the market and next year we will have more oversupply,” he added.
Cutting output unilaterally would effectively mean for OPEC, which accounts for a third of global oil output, a further loss of market share to North American shale oil producers.
If OPEC decided against cutting and rolled over existing output levels on Thursday, that would effectively mean a price war that the Saudis and other Gulf producers could withstand due to their large foreign-exchange reserves.
Other members, such as Venezuela, would find it much more difficult.
Among the 12 members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Venezuela and Iraq have called for output cuts.
OPEC’s traditional price hawk Iran said on Wednesday its views were now close to those of Saudi Arabia as Zangeneh said he had an “excellent” meeting with Naimi.
Brent crude LCOc1 declined and was trading down 60 cents at $77.74 a barrel at 1536 GMT after Zangeneh said there was unity inside OPEC to “monitor the market carefully” but made no mention of a cut.
Naimi has not commented on what the group should do.
OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and fellow member the United Arab Emirates signalled on Wednesday they were unlikely to push for a major change in oil output at the group’s meeting this week to prop up prices that have sunk by a third since June.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said he expected the oil market “to stabilise itself eventually”, after talks with non-OPEC member Russia on Tuesday yielded no pledge from Moscow to tackle a global oil glut jointly.
OPEC’s meeting on Thursday will be one of its most crucial in recent years, with oil having tumbled to below $78 a barrel due to the US shale boom and slower economic growth in China and Europe.
Core Gulf oil producer the UAE sided with Naimi, saying oil prices would soon stabilise, while ramping up pressure on non-OPEC producers.
“This is not a crisis that requires us to panic … we have seen (prices) way lower,” UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui told Reuters.
“I think everyone needs to play a role in balancing the market, not OPEC unilaterally”.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said some OPEC members, although not Iran, were now gearing up for a battle over market share and he insisted that producers outside the group needed to participate in any OPEC-led output cut.
“Some OPEC members believe that this is the time where we need to defend market share … All the experts in the market believe we have oversupply in the market and next year we will have more oversupply,” he added.
Cutting output unilaterally would effectively mean for OPEC, which accounts for a third of global oil output, a further loss of market share to North American shale oil producers.
If OPEC decided against cutting and rolled over existing output levels on Thursday, that would effectively mean a price war that the Saudis and other Gulf producers could withstand due to their large foreign-exchange reserves.
Other members, such as Venezuela, would find it much more difficult.
Among the 12 members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Venezuela and Iraq have called for output cuts.
OPEC’s traditional price hawk Iran said on Wednesday its views were now close to those of Saudi Arabia as Zangeneh said he had an “excellent” meeting with Naimi.
Brent crude LCOc1 declined and was trading down 60 cents at $77.74 a barrel at 1536 GMT after Zangeneh said there was unity inside OPEC to “monitor the market carefully” but made no mention of a cut.
Naimi has not commented on what the group should do.
