OPEC delays 35 oil projects to boost prices

OPEC members have delayed 35 oil projects to expand the group’s supply, its secretary-general said yesterday, as oil’s record plunge reduces their revenue and the financial crisis erodes demand.

To help revive prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is willing to cut yet more oil output at a meeting in March, Abdullah al-Badri told reporters at a Chatham House energy conference.


Oil has fallen to US$40 a barrel from a record near US$150 in July as a deepening recession erodes demand for fuel. The decline “lost” OPEC US$356-billion in income in the period from the peak in prices to last month, he said.

“Current prices threaten the very sustainability of planned investment,” Mr. Badri said in a speech. He told reporters earlier that of 150 projects due to come on line in the next few years, 35 had been set back to after 2013.

Financial Post