Cooperation between OPEC, IEA underscored: Report

OPEC Secretary General Alvaro Silva-Calderon said on Friday that current cooperation between the organization and the International Energy Agency (IEA) bolsters understanding between the two organizations in face of challenges affecting the global energy sector.

OPEC's news agency, OPECNA, quoted Silva-Calderon as saying, in a statement, that the cartel has always affirmed that the stability of the oil market "serves interests of both the producers and consumers and it can only be secured through the cooperation and understanding" between OPEC and the IEA.

Silva-Calderon re-asserted that the organization would pursue its active role to serve interests of the oil market. OPECNA also quoted the executive manager of the cartel, Robert Briddle, as emphasizing the necessity of coordination between OPEC and the IEA and indicated that the two sides reached a cooperation agreement on sidelines of the 17th International Petroleum Conference, held two months ago.

Briddle said OPEC and the IEA agree on many issues but they disagree on some affairs, namely OPEC's mechanism of oil pricing (22-28 dollars per barrel), control of the oil market and imposition of taxes on energy products.

The two sides were at loggerheads in the 70s, when oil was used as a political weapon and for reasons that were not related to the oil market, but now the situation is different, as the oil producers have realised the necessity of ensuring stability of supplies.

Both the oil producers and consumers need accurate information about the oil market, he said, indicating that the organization was seeking to secure this service with various means.

Briddle expressed satisfaction with the current balance between the supplies and demand on the oil market, saying "we were not very much surprised at the decision of the OPEC ministers at the latest conference in Osaka not to increase the oil production."

But he indicated that excessive supplies of crude, that have been flowing to the market, would be sufficient to meet the prospected high demand during the winter.

Briddle visited headquarters of OPEC in Vienna On Wednesday, and held talks with the OPEC secretary general, in the first such visit by a senior figure of the energy agency to the cartel's main offices.

The IEA was founded in Paris in 1974, 14 years after the establishment of OPEC. (*)