After Doha, what next for Opec? | The National

After Doha, what next for Opec? | The National:

"Opec has had some infamous meetings in its history. An ill-timed hike in quotas in Jakarta in November 1997 led to a crash in prices, while the June 2011 “worst ever" meeting in Vienna, as the Saudi oil minister termed it, failed to stop prices from rising. Doha last week was, perhaps, not in that league but still blended tedium, surprise and dysfunction, even more embarrassingly for including key non-Opec players.

Most Opec countries attended along with non-Opec leaders such as Russia and Oman. It seemed that the previously announced deal to freeze production at January levels was a formality, especially as most countries involved could not or would not increase output anyway.

But at the last moment the Saudi position changed, and it became clear they would not agree to freeze production unless Iran were included. The Venezuelan oil minister Eulogio Del Pino said: “Even [the Saudi oil minister, Ali Al] Naimi didn’t have the authority to change anything … One minister told me it was his worst-ever meeting.""



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