Saturday to keep its quotes just where they have been for the last two years.
Meeting In Quito, Ecuador, the oil ministers of the 12 OPEC member states took only 90 minutes to roll over their quotas for another quarter.
The day before OPEC met, the price of an average OPEC barrel was $87.65, well above the mid-70s where the price had hovered rather consistently for a year until early November.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali an-Naimi told reporters he thought a good price for a barrel was $70 to $80. Some thought that hinted that Saudi Arabia would raise its output to restrain the price.
Iranian Oil Minister Masud Mir-Kazemi said $100 would be a “good” price. So did the oil ministers of Venezuela, Libya and Angola.
The winter has started off very cold in much of the Northern Hemisphere, which is probably contributing to the price climb. Concerns that the US Federal Reserve may extend stimulus measures and weaken the dollar also probably are contributing.
Ahmad Zaki Yamani, who for many years was the Saudi oil minister, said, “Bells are ringing in the corridors already. If this carries on, if it’s a really cold winter, we can see prices heading up to $100. At some stage, even the Saudis will realize there’s something going on here and that they should respond. And they will.”
OPEC has maintained a production quota of 24.845 million barrels a day since December 2008, the longest period quotas have remained unchanged since they were first adopted in 1982.
But all of OPEC’s member states are exceeding their quotas; last month they were collectively 8 percent over quota.
Edward Morse, managing director of Credit Suisse in New York, said, “The fact that Naimi keep saying $70 to $80 a barrel makes it a meaningful statement. When you have Venezuela saying $100 is adequate and Iran saying demand is weak, even as it skyrockets, I think if they [the Saudis] don’t want a confrontation they will quietly supply more to the market.”