OPEC member states Algeria, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela would consider attending an extraordinary OPEC meeting if it is called, Venezuelan Minister of Oil Eulogio Del Pino said Wednesday.“The idea is to not just hold a meeting, but for all the countries to attend with the intention of reaching agreements,” the minister said, according to a statement released by his ministry while in Iran. Oil prices are currently “below equilibrium,” he added.
The United Arab Emirates moved to quash talk of a potential emergency meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Nigeria’s oil minister said on Tuesday a “couple” of members had requested a gathering, Reuters reports.
Benchmark Brent crude futures slipped toward $30 a barrel to a near 12-year low before rising slightly on Tuesday and the Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu had told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Abu Dhabi that an emergency meeting to review whether OPEC should change its strategy was on the cards.
The minister of state for petroleum, Mr Ibe Kachiukwu, has replaced Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke as the conference president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Speculations have been rife that President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also the minister of petroleum would take the top seat at OPEC, but the organisation in a recent update named Kachikwu as the head of the OPEC conference.
