LOC13:08
10:08 GMT
the Organization of Arab Exporting Petroleum Abbas Al-Naqqi
KUWAIT, March 26 (KUNA) -- Supply and demand are no longer most influential
factors that affect prices of oil and other causes have proven much more
effective in setting prices of the crude, opined Secretary General of the
Organization of Arab Exporting Petroleum Abbas Al-Naqqi.
The other factors that turned much more influential include geopolitical
considerations, speculations, status of global crude reserves, rate of the US
dollar, conditions at global financial markets, major shares, weather forecast
and production and exports, said Al-Naqqi in a statement on Monday.
Al-Naqqi, whose remarks came in a statement, issued on the occasion of the
upcoming the Gulf Petroleum Conference and Exhibition (2012), due to be held
on April 9, expressed his belief that events that prevailed across the Arab
world, over the past months, did not result in significant effects on the
prices of oil.
Price of the crude rose from USD 90 per barrel in the end of 2010 to some
USD 121 in end of April 2011, due to noticeable intervention by speculators in
the market, unfounded jitters and concern toward events that occurred in the
Middle East and Africa that acquire more than 60 percent of the global oil
reserves and control more than 40 percent of the global oil trade.
However, the price of the basket of crudes of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped to USD 107.3 pb, during the first nine
months of 2011, when some producers increased the output to make up for
shortage of supplies, and as a result of uncertainty regarding the global
economic forecast that pushed down predictions on prospected crude demand.
Regarding development and expansion of OAPEC, Al-Naqqi indicated that it
has significantly developed since its establishment in Beirut in 1968, when
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya signed an accord to set it up, with
headquarters to be based in Kuwait.
Algeria, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia had later
joined the organization.
Currently, OAPEC comprises 11 member states including Tunisia. Peoples of
the member states constitute up to 64 percent of the whole Arab nation. It
puts out 27.3 percent of the global production of oil, in addition to 13.8
percent of natural gas and has more than 56 percent of the globe oil reserves.
The upcoming convention, organized by Investors Group, is scheduled on
April 9-10, under the theme, "Gulf petroleum integration ... outlooks and
challenges." It will be sponsored by Kuwait's Minister of Oil and Chairman of
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Hani Hussein. (end)
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