Oil price will be frozen—Minister

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 8

Oil price will be frozen—Minister

| NZPA-Reuter Madrid The Saudi Arabian Commerce Minister (Dr Suleiman Abdulaziz al-Salim) has said that he does not believe the oil-producing countries will raise prices at their forthcoming meeting in Caracas. The conference, to open on Tuesday, will fix the international price of oil for next year.

Dr al-Salim, speaking in Madrid, said he believed that the Saudi Oil Minister (Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani) would overcome opposition from other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and persuade them to keep prices from rising. Petroleum affairs analysts have predicted that the 13nation O.P.E.C. will decide on a price freeze at the coming meeting. They based their forecast on statements

from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, the three O.P.E.C. giants. The three price moderates account for about 65 per cent of O.P.E.C.’s production of crude oil and their views carry enough weight in the organisation to force a unanimous decision in support of a freeze in prices. Qatar will offer the industrialised world a Christmas gift when O.P.E.C. meets in Caracas, the organisation’s president (Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Khalita al-Thani) has said. The sheikh, who is also Qatar’s Petroleum and Finance Minister, did not specify what form the gift would take, but he indicated that his country would go along with oil-price moderiates who want to freeze prices to relax inflationary ! pressures on the world’s I economy.