OPEC May Call Early Meeting If Oil Declines Further

By Nicholas Larkin and Grant Smith

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may call a meeting earlier than the scheduled December date if oil prices continue to fall, according to Secretary-General Abdalla el-Badri.

``If circumstances dictate we have another meeting, of course we will meet,'' el-Badri said today at the Oil & Money conference in London. He said he expects a market response to last week's production cut after about a week.

Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp., echoed el-Badri's comments, and said he's watching the market to see whether it's ``deteriorating or stabilizing.''


Crude rose from a 17-month low today, climbing as much as $1.67, or 2.6 percent, to $64.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling as low as $61.75. It was at $63.76 a barrel at 10:23 a.m. London time. The price has fallen 56 percent since reaching a record $147.27 on July 11 and is down 32 percent from a year ago.

United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohamed al-Hamli said at the conference that at the time of oil's price peak, speculation accounted for about $30 to $40 of the price.

El-Badri also said output from sources such as Canadian oil sands, Brazilian oil fields and biofuels will be less viable if current prices persist.

Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Qatar's energy minister, said a range of $70 to $80 was the ``best price'' to ensure investments. He said the recent decline poses no danger to Qatari projects, adding that he has no indication of an OPEC meeting before December.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London at nlarkin1@bloomberg.net; Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net