Oil men meet to form price plan

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 8

Oil men meet to form price plan

■ NZPA-Reuter • T a. if > ' Saudi Arabia Ministers of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting 'Countries .will meet in Taif, ■ Saudi Arabia, today, to disJcuss long-term strategy after (hints by their president, that i industrialised nations were 'unlikely to ger stability in [oil supplies and Pfjces . unless they gave the mra (World a fair deal. ! The O.P.E.C. president, the Venezuelan. Energy Minister! (Dr Humberto Calderon; jßerti) was speaking at a j press conference as Oil Min-, listers from the 13-member! jO.P.E.C. gathered -in the; (Saudi summer capital. ■ They will discuss propo-| [sals, on their-: policy for the! 1980 s prepared by a com- ■ mittee which has been meeti ing for two vears under the [Saudi Oil Minister (Sheikh ; Ahmed Zaki Yamani). - i Dr Calderon was as optiImistic as. other O.P.E.C. offi[cials in ■’ believing-' the oil I exporters' would agree to the proposed ’Strategy, which will be formally unveiled at an • O.P.E.C. summit conference in ■ Bagdad in November. But he would not say ; Whether the O.P.E.C. plan would ensure stability in the ■ troubled world oil market, : I which has seen prices more ■ [than double since the Ira- i nian revolution at the begin- i ning of last year. i “Prices are not our first i concern,” Dr Calderon said. ] O.P.E.C.'S priorities were its i relations with other devel- t

, oping ’ nations and rea& rivaling the North-South■s, alogue between rich ' poor nations. ’ Dr Calderon said A, ’ industrialised nations wantej [ to be able to predict hej, . much oil they were likely to [ get in the future and : much they would have [ pay for it. : “Maybe we can findJ| way if we can get somethin# in return,” he added. v? i Earlier in the news coij. iference. he said O.P.E.C, ; wanted a resumption of icussions on how to transfer !t-he wealth of rich nations to [the poor. ■ y ; The talks should cover ij I reform of the international [monetary system, energy [raw materials, and the transfer of technology to th’g developing nations, he said. ' O.P.E.C. sources said tiia strategy report, while reflex ting Dr Calderon’s main con< cerns, also suggested a sysi tern of regular oil-price : iu, creases. This would be based on an index wiiicn not only moved the price of oil in relation to the rates of inflation and currency fluctuation, birf also linked it to the West’s growth rates. The proposal that ths gross national product of the industrial States should be taken into account in work* ing out oil prices meant tha|| they would have to pay more fo-r their oil if then! economies prospered butl prices would not rise as fasj if there was a slump, the sources said.