OPEC, supplier of more than 40 percent of the world's oil, is likely to cut production at its summit in Oran, Algeria, next month and may not lower output at its meeting in Cairo on Nov. 29, the group's president said, TehranTimes reported.
"We aren't likely to take a decision in Cairo," Chakib Khelil, who is also Algeria's energy minister, told reporters today in Algiers. "In Oran, we will have enough information to make a decision. There we will decide to cut."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plans to meet in the Egyptian capital to discuss oil markets and halt a slide in prices after crude oil touched $54.67 a barrel, a 21- month low, on Nov. 13. The 13-member organization cut production by 1.5 million barrels a day at a meeting in Vienna last month.
The meeting in Cairo will "asses the market situation and collect information from member countries," Khelil said. "The current price of oil is low, but it can't remain low always. We believe prices should be between $70 and $90 a barrel."
The Cairo summit, originally intended for only the group's Arab members, was upgraded to a full OPEC meeting on Nov. 13. The producer group was originally scheduled to meet next on Dec. 17 in Oran.