Opec’s top official urges IEA to halt its oil release
THE International Energy Agency (IEA) order to release emergency oil stocks should be halted immediately, Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ secretary general said yesterday at the end of cooperation talks with the EU.
Years of producer-consumer harmony have come under threat after the IEA last week ordered the release of 60m barrels of oil following the collapse of an Opec meeting early in the month without a deal.
Following EU-Opec meetings in Vienna, secretary general Abdullah al-Badri said: “I hope this practice will be stopped and stopped immediately. We don’t see a good reason to release this quantity and I hope the IEA will refrain from using this practice.
“Why they are not abiding by [free market] principles is really a big question for us. We believe that prices should be set by the market itself.”
The meeting between representatives of the Opec and EU consumer countries has taken place every year since June 2005.