Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said yesterday there was no proposal to hold an extraordinary meeting of the oil cartel OPEC in the light of falling prices.
“There is no proposal to hold an extraordinary OPEC meeting,” he told reporters at the ninth Arab Energy Conference in Doha.
Oil prices have fallen sharply since last Monday as the US dollar struck 14-month highs against the euro on worries about the impact of a Greek debt crisis on the eurozone.
On Friday, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, shed US$2 to US$75.11 a barrel. The price rose to an 18-month high of US$87.15 last Monday. Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month slid US$1.56 to US$78.27.
Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said OPEC won’t need to take any action in response to the debt emergency that started in Greece. Prices have dropped because of “uncertainty on the market and the economy,” Khelil said in Doha on Saturday.
Asked if he expected OPEC to take steps to prevent further declines, he said: “I don’t think so.”
“Oil is likely to trade in a band of US$80 to US$85 a barrel,” he said. “There is plenty of oil, the stocks are high.”
The ministers’ statements followed a call on Saturday by his Kuwaiti counterpart for OPEC to meet ahead of its scheduled conference in October if oil prices slide below US$65 per barrel.
Asked when OPEC should act and at what price level, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah said “when oil price falls below 65” US dollars a barrel.
His Emirati counterpart, Mohammad bin Dhaen al-Hamli, attributed a slide in oil prices to what he called a “price correction.”
“What has been taking place is a correction ... prices are going up and down,” Hamli told reporters, adding that oil prices were being driven by market forces.
Both ministers are in Doha for the ninth Arab Energy Conference that started yesterday.
Oil prices are down 9 percent since March 17, when OPEC agreed to uphold existing output quotas for a fifth time since 2008. Members are exceeding those allocations by about 2 million barrels a day.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’