Opec to resist the West on oil production

Saudi Arabia and other Opec members are expected this week to rebuff calls from Western consumer nations for an increase in oil production to help to avert the threat of a worldwide recession.

With global crude prices trading close to record highs of $103 per barrel on Friday, oil ministers of the 13 Opec member states, which are responsible for about 40 per cent of total global oil production, will meet in Vienna on Wednesday to reconsider the group’s existing production ceiling of 29.7 million barrels per day

In January, President Bush called for Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer, to increase supplies to the market in order to soothe prices and ease the impact of the current global economic slowdown.

Sam Bodman, the US Energy Secretary, repeated the calls last week, arguing that high fuel prices were adding to the turmoil in global credit markets and putting further pressure on rising prices for food and commodities.

Times of London