Third of oil revenues goes back to consumer countries - OAPEC

KUWAIT, May 4 (KUNA) -- The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) said Sunday an estimated third of the cash surplus generated from the oil exports of its members in 2007 went back to the consumer countries.
The soaring prices of other imports of the oil exporting countries consumed a great part of the cash surplus due to the plummeting of U.S. dollar, OAPEC said in its monthly bulletin.
The regional cartel brought into question the claims about huge gains of the oil exporting countries due to the recent price rise.
The oil prices grew by 13 percent in 2007 in contrast to the previous year but the U.S. dollar lost 8 percentage points to the Euro and Pound Sterling during that period, thus pushing the costs of imports of OAPEC member countries, the bulletin explained.
The plummeting of the U.S. dollar also contributed to retreat of purchasing power in oil producing countries and weakened the value of Arab investments on the U.S. market which accounts for 70 percent of the overseas Arab investments.
The artificial rise of oil prices and retreat of the U.S. dollar exchange rate against other major currencies raised anew the controversy over use of the dollar as a pricing currency for oil. Some oil exporting countries started reviewing their pricing systems, thus arousing a state of wariness in the global oil markets over the future developments, it went on to say.
The bulletin distinguished between two kinds of the dollar plummeting, firstly; the retreat of the nominal value of the dollar resulting from the soaring inflation rates in the United States in comparison with its trade partners, secondly; the retreat of the real value of the dollar resulting from the discrepancy in inflation rates.
The OAPEC members import 29 percent of their total imports from Euro zone countries, so they were affected by the retreat of dollar against Euro variably according to the degree of their respective trade exchanges with Euro zone countries. The OAPEC is following closely the economic developments and hopes its members would be able to surpass the difficulties relating to the retreat of the dollar and the purchasing power, the bulletin added.
Established by an agreement amongst Arab countries which rely on the export of petroleum, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) is a regional inter-governmental organization concerned with the development of the petroleum industry by fostering cooperation among its members. OAPEC contributes to the effective use of the resources of member countries through sponsoring joint ventures. (end) ahj.abd.gb.
KUNA 041655 May 08NNNN