Opec Touts Success in Price Management

Oil Daily, The, September, 2004

Oil prices are still over $40 per barrel and oil producers are pumping as much as the market can take, so the sun was shining on Opec as ministers started gathering in Vienna Monday for their regular meeting which closes formally on Sep.15.

There are two hot issues on the agenda after a summer that saw oil prices inch close to $50/bbl and Opec producing the highest daily volume since 1980. The first is whether to boost quotas to take account of the 2 million barrels per day that Opec is producing over its current ceiling.

The second is whether to jack up the Opec price target by about $5 per barrel to around $30, to reflect the recent price levels that many analysts now suppose are here to stay, due to stretched global capacity and strong demand growth,...