RIYADH, Nov 16: Opec ministers on Friday hammered out the agenda for a rare summit of the cartel this weekend, with record oil prices, the environment and Venezuelan pressure to politicise the group set for discussion.
The gathering comes at a time of tension on world oil markets, with the cartel under pressure to increase its output to help calm record crude prices that threatened to breach $100 a barrel for the first time last week.
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez forecast on Friday that prices would soon break through the symbolic $100-barrier. They are currently around $90.
“We have been saying for years that oil is going to reach $100 a barrel and it seems that is going to happen soon,” he told reporters.
Ministers have ruled out any increase in output, at least until another meeting next month, and leaders are expected to focus instead on climate change, development and ensuring long-term stability of prices.
Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil revealed that the centrepiece of the cartel’s new-found green agenda would be carbon capture, an undeveloped technology that requires huge amounts of investment to become viable.
Opec organisers have made “protecting the environment” one of three headline themes -- to the surprise of many -- and the group is to urge greater use of the technique to trap carbon dioxide and store it underground.
Khelil, reading from a draft version of a declaration to be issued on Sunday, said point three would be “energy and environment: carbon storage could reduce the impact of fossil fuels on climate change and developed countries have the technology on this.”
The summit, which begins on Saturday after talks between oil, foreign and finance ministers on Friday, is only the third gathering of Opec head of states in the organisation’s 47-year
