OPEC still on course to meet oil market challenge

LONDON (Reuters) – A $10-a-barrel price slide, an unseasonable rise in motor fuel stocks and a slackening of output discipline have complicated, but not yet sabotaged, OPEC’s quest to push the oil market higher.

At its last meeting in May, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was in upbeat mood and the $75-a-barrel level its members have argued is a fair price for consumers and producers emerged as a goal for later this year.

It was very nearly achieved at the end of June when oil hit this year’s peak of $73.38. But since July a different mood has swept financial markets, which are now as focused on economic gloom as on embryonic growth.

“Yes, we are concerned,” a source close to the Angolan OPEC presidency said. “But we cannot panic. We have to wait until the meeting in September.”

OPEC next meets to consider output policy on September 9.

Reuters