Gas-exporting nations also need an OPEC-like body to “regulate” prices, Rafael Ramirez told reporters today. The Venezuelan is one of several ministers attending a meeting in Doha of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, a gas producers group that does not set supply quotas.
Libya’s top oil official, Shokri Ghanem, said yesterday in Doha that OPEC is unlikely to change its oil production quotas at the oil group’s Dec. 11 meeting in Quito, Ecuador.
Instead, oil ministers from the 12-nation group will seek tighter compliance with OPEC’s existing output guidelines when they meet, Ghanem said.
OPEC, which produces about 40 percent of the world’s oil, hasn’t changed quotas since agreeing to its biggest-ever cuts in production in December 2008. Brent crude oil futures for January settlement were trading near $89 a barrel this morning on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.
