Kuwait Says OPEC ‘Not Yet’ Concerned By Oil Below $70

OPEC agreed in March to uphold output quotas for a fifth time. The group’s members slashed their production quotas at a meeting in December 2008, after global energy demand fell amid the worst recession since World War II. Crude oil prices slumped from a record $147 a barrel in July of that year to $32 in December.

Members currently exceed those allocations by about 2 million barrels a day, meaning they’re maintaining 53 percent of a promised 4.2 million barrel-a-day cutback, according to Bloomberg estimates.

OPEC is “tense” about the decline in oil prices and may call an extraordinary meeting if the drop continues, Angolan Oil Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said May 18.

Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait said May 8 that oil prices below $65 a barrel would “ring a bell” for OPEC ministers to hold a meeting before their next scheduled gathering on Oct. 14.

Bloomberg