Oil price freeze till end of year from O.P.E.C.

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 6

Oil price freeze till end of year from O.P.E.C.

NZPA-Reuter Geneva O.P.E.C. ministers yester•day decided to freeze the •yrice of oil until the end of .•the year and most members -of the organisation will cut production by a minimum of JO per cent. * The price freeze will in- ’ xlude Saudi Arabia, the biggest Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries producer, which had been iinder pressure at the two'day talks in Geneva to raise the price of the oil with which it has been flooding : the world market at SUS 32 a barrel. . The Saudi Deputy Oil Minister (Mr Abdul-Aziz Turki) ?aid: “We have tried to reach a unified price and in the

absence of a unified price we are going to stay at $32.” The freeze, in effect, prolongs an arrangement made in Bali, Indonesia, in December, under which most O.P.E.C. members charge $36 a barrel for . their oil. But producers of highquality grades are allowed to charge, differentials of up to $4l. The terms of the price freeze give Saudi Arabia the option of going up as far as $36 before December, when Q.P.E.G. “ will next meet in Abu . Dhabi. , , An official communique; is--sued after the meeting said that the decision to maintain prices had been •.taken because of the market situa-

tion. It said most of O.P.E.C. members agreed to cut production.

Mr Turki told reporters this decision did not apply to his country. “Saudi Arabia never discusses production in 0.P.E.C..” he said. The Saudi refusal to bow to demands that it cut output and help ease the market glut angered the Q.P.E.C. pricing militants. The Iranian . delegation leader, Hassan Sadat, told reporters:' “Saudi Arabia is isolated.” He' described O.P.E.C.’s agreement on production cutsas “a very big decision.” He said that in keeping its prices low and production high, Saudi Arabia was “serving imperialist’ interest. The regime should now think of its own people.”