GCC countries have always maintained stability in oil prices: Saudi Oil Minister

The Saudi Press Agency quoted a press statement by the minister yesterday evening after the opening of the 2nd Petroleum Media Forum of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States.

Riyadh -- The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia, Ali bin Ibrahim Al Naimi, has said that the GCC countries have always maintained a balance in oil prices and their stability, expressing optimism along with his counterparts about oil prices due to the goodwill of the member States of the bloc.

The Saudi Press Agency quoted a press statement by the minister yesterday evening after the opening of the 2nd Petroleum Media Forum of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States, in which he said, “GCC countries in the past and present have maintained balancing oil prices and their stability, and the prices are set by the market.”

In reply to a question about the intention of negotiating with countries outside OPEC to improve or achieve prices, he said, “In 1998 when there was the depression of prices at that time, we toured countries outside OPEC, and we managed to gather them, and we agreed on combined cuts which moderated markets.

Today, the situation is difficult, we have tried and met, but we have not succeeded due to the insistence of countries that OPEC alone shall bear this burden; and we reject this matter that OPEC bears the responsibility as its production constitutes 30% of the market, and 70% from outside OPEC. As it is a public interest, everyone must take part if we want to improve prices, and it is unallowable that one person earns at the expense of the other. In the eighties we lost a lot and we are not ready to repeat that.”

The Minister stressed that the idea of creating a specialised institute in the field of petroleum media is good, adding, “Every Ministry of Energy and Petroleum holds annually or biennially a workshop for a certain period to explain the petroleum industry, and this is what was experienced before two years for the media personnel. They were given lessons for two weeks, and I think that was useful, and this will be repeated in order to strengthen knowledge and understanding, not only for us, but for the whole world.”

Minister Al Naimi said, “The production of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in the range of 10 million barrels, and we are ready to meet a demand of a new customer at any time, explaining that there is no objection to the accession of new countries to the organisation, despite the invitation of many countries, but they have not joined the organisation.”