OPEC producers begin talks on joint investment firm

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Nov 17, 2000

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- OPEC producers will open talks today on a joint investment firm to raise more than $100 billion to help boost output to meet demand over the next two decades, an Iranian oil ministry adviser said Thursday.

Morteza Hashemi, a former OPEC governor for Iran, said talks about the proposed investment firm were among the most important discussions that would take place on the sidelines of the three-day International Energy Forum that begins today in Riyadh. "OPEC has calculated its strategy for the next 20 years," Hashemi said in a telephone interview from Tehran. "We calculate that OPEC's current production of 29 million barrels of oil a day will need to be doubled in 20 years to keep up with demand."

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are producing at capacity and need new investments for any meaningful increase in output. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is the only OPEC producer with excess capacity of about 1.5 million barrels a day.

Hashemi said an estimated $117 billion was necessary to double production capacity among the 11 OPEC members from the current 29 million barrels a day.