OPEC, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, will discuss whether or not to increase output at its 146th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 5 December, said Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil.
“We will examine, based on consumers' demand, whether to increase or to maintain the present OPEC production during the forthcoming conference, to be convened Wednesday in Abu Dhabi,” Minister Khelil told reporters in Algiers.
Speaking after the opening ceremony of the First International Conference on Mineral Resources here, he added that the recent oil price decrease on the international markets was mainly caused by speculation that OPEC might decide to raise production.
The last time the UAE hosted the ministerial conference was 29 years ago, also in Abu Dhabi in December 1978, Mohamed Bin Dhaen Alhamli Minister of Energy of the UAE and President of the OPEC Conference said in his welcome message to delegates.
OPEC is a permanent, intergovernmental Organisation, created at the Baghdad Conference on 10 - 14 September 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
The five founding members were later joined by nine other members, namely Qatar (1961); Indonesia (1962); Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1962); United Arab Emirates (1967); Algeria (1969); Nigeria (1971); Ecuador (1973–1992); Gabon (1975–1994) and Angola (2007).
The price of the OPEC basket of twelve crude oils stood at US$85.91 a barrel on Friday, the most recent calculation, compared with US$87.78 the previous day.
In South Africa, the retail price of all grades of petrol is to rise by 43 cents a litre, while the wholesale price of diesel with a sulphur content of 0.05% would go up by 51 cents a litre.
Diesel with a sulphur content of 0.005% will rise by 52 cents a litre.
Illuminating paraffin's wholesale price would see an increase of 58 cents a litre, and its single maximum national retail price would rise by 78 cents a litre.
Article published courtesy of BuaNews
