MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opec divided on US dollar but pledges reliable oil supply

Opec leaders meeting in Riyadh pledged to provide the world with reliable supplies of oil and fight global warming but the summit's final statement made no mention of calls by oil-consuming countries such as that from Washington to raise production to ease sky-high prices.

However the sliding dollar was not mentioned in the communiqué. The fall of the dollar, which has weakened considerably against the Euro and other currencies in the past 12 months, has affected the revenues of Opec members because most of them price and sell their oil exports in the US currency. Venezuela's president had opened the third summit, in Opec's 47 years, with a warning that oil prices could double if the US attacked Iran. Oil has been hitting record peaks of well over $90 a barrel as markets believe the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will not boost production. Chavez said the price of crude could reach $150 or even $200 a barrel. The summit saw differences about the future direction of the exporters' group. President Chavez and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa, whose country rejoined Opec at the summit, had both pleaded for a more political agenda for the group, but ran into opposition from US ally Saudi Arabia. The final declaration stressed the importance of world peace for the stability of oil prices. A division had also emerged during the summit between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iranian officials wanted the final statement to express concern about the weakness of the dollar. In a post-summit news conference, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that all Opec countries showed interest in converting their cash reserves into other currencies. But Saudi officials were against including any such remarks in the declaration. One is reported to have warned that it could add to the pressure on the dollar. In the statement, Opec leaders insisted on the importance of technology to enable the use of cleaner oil to help fight global warming. They also recognized the importance of energy in fighting poverty. "We associate our countries with all global efforts aimed at bridging the development gap and making energy available to the world's poor while protecting the environment," Opec Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, said it would donate $300m to a green technology fund to help combat global warming. Kuwait said it would donate $150m.