Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has no plans to hold an emergency meeting amid falling oil prices, according to a delegate from the group.

Crude prices have dropped almost 50 percent from a June peak as OPEC refused to cut production and U.S. output reached a three-decade high. There have been no concrete discussions about holding an emergency meeting, said the delegate, who asked not to be identified because the group’s talks are private. OPEC’s next regular meeting is on June 5.

Brent for April settlement added 29 cents to $59.19 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at 1 p.m. Singapore time. Monday prices rebounded to gain 45 cents in intraday trading after OPEC President Diezani Alison-Madueke said in an interview with the Financial Times that she will call a meeting if prices keep declining.

“An emergency meeting would suggest that they are going to do something to support the market,” said Bill O’Grady, chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis, which oversees $2.4 billion. “If there is no emergency meeting, then there is no reason to get excited, and that’s really where we are now.”

OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s crude, pumped 30.9 million a day in January, exceeding its target for an eighth straight month, according to production estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The Energy Information Administration forecast that U.S. output will increase to 9.3 million barrels a day this year, the most since 1972. Crude stockpiles rose to 425.6 million barrels as of Feb. 13, the most in EIA weekly data beginning 1982.

If the oil price “slips any further it is highly likely that I will have to call an extraordinary meeting of OPEC in the next six weeks or so,” Alison-Madueke said in the interview.