MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

OPEC emergency meeting moved forward to October 24

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, has brought forward an emergency meeting to discuss the effect of the global financial crisis on oil markets. The announcement was made public when oil prices plunged below 67 USD the barrel.

"Following consultations with the president of the OPEC conference and colleague ministers, it has been decided to re-schedule the extraordinary meeting of the OPEC conference", said an official release from OPEC. The meeting moves forward to October 24. The meeting "will now take place at OPEC Headquarters, Vienna, on Friday 24th October 2008, rather than on 18th November 2008, as previously announced". Oil prices have fallen by more than 50% from the record high of 147 USD per barrel, due mainly to fears of a global economic downturn. Abdullah al-Attiyah, Qatar's oil minister, said that he expected OPEC to cut oil production by one million barrels per day or more at next week's meeting. He added the meeting was brought forward so that "we can take action before solutions become more difficult ... Prices have plunged in a very big way." OPEC did not give further details on why the meeting had been moved, but the body said last week that it would hold the meeting to "discuss the global financial crisis, the world economic situation and the impacts on the oil market". "The sub-prime mortgage problems that have been observed for a long time have created a shock wave in financial institutions resulting in huge losses, and an escalating credit squeeze which has turned into a deep financial crisis." The price of oil continued to fall on Thursday, with Brent crude closing lower on 67 USD a barrel, its lowest level for more than 15 months. Traders said the drop was due to lowering energy demands. OPEC sources have said that member countries would like to see the crude barrel to stabilize in the range of 80 to 90 US dollars per barrel. The more hawkish members of the cartel are pushing for a supply cut of up to a million barrels per day.