Fairs, Forums and congresses: OPEC 2009

154th Ordinary Meeting of the OPEC Conference
9 September 2009, OPEC Secretariat, Vienna

Obere Donaustrasse 93, 1020 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43 1 211 12/0
Fax: +43 1 214 98 27
E-mail: prid@opec.org
www.opec.org

The 154th Ordinary Meeting of the OPEC Conference took place on September the 9th 2009, in Vienna, under the Chairmanship of its President, HE Eng. José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, Minister of Petroleum of Angola and Head of its Delegation.
OPEC meets more than a third of the world’s annual oil demand, nearly 86 million barrels a day for 2008. (International Energy Agency).
At the headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, alongside the Danube, the 12-member group attended the conference:

1. HE Dr Chakib Khelil, Minister of Energy and Mines, Algeria
2. HE Eng José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, President of the Conference and Minister of Petroleum, Angola
3. HE Germánico Pinto, Minister of Mines and Petroleum and Alternate President of the Conference, Ecuador
4. HE Masoud Mir-Kazemi, Minister of Petroleum, Iran
5. HE Dr Hussain Al-Shahristani, Minister of Oil, Iraq
6. Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Minister of Oil and Chairman of KPC’s Board of Directors, Kuwait
7. Mr Ali E M Saleh, General Manager of the Libyan National Oil Corporation, Libya
8. HE Dr Rilwanu Lukman, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria
9. HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Deputy Premier, Minister of Energy and Industry, Qatar
10. HE Ali I Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia
11. HE Mohamed bin Dhaen Al Hamli, Minister of Energy, UAE
12. Dr Bernard Mommer, the country’s Governor for OPEC, Venezuela

During the Conference, WINNE met HE Eng José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, President of the Conference and Minister of Petroleum, Angola
And Mr. Manuel Vicente, President of Sonangol, compania nacional de combustibles de Angola.

At the beginning of the Conference, HE Eng. José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, President of the Conference, welcomed the new delegates: HE Germánico Pinto, the Minister of Mines and Petroleum of Ecuador and HE Masoud Mir-Kazemi, Minister of Petroleum of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Conference elected them respectively as President of the Conference and Alternate President for one year, with effect from 1st January 2010.
For 2010, Mr. Ahmed M. Elghaber, Governor for the Socialist People Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, is appointed as Chairman of the Board of Governors and Mr. Mohammed S. Barkindo, Governor for Nigeria, as Alternate Chairman.

HE Eng. Botelho expressed his satisfaction about the strengthening of oil prices during the last 3 months, within a range of US $60 to $73 a barrel. “This has provided welcome support for the industry’s investment plans”.
Nevertheless, he remains concerned about the price volatility, “when OECD crude oil stocks are about ten per cent above the five-year average level”. In spite of the recent fragile recovery of the economy, there is a climate of uncertainty until the end of 2010. That is why the Conference agreed to leave current production levels unchanged. According to HE Eng. Botelho, “oil prices have become very sensitive to external economic signals, such as dollar exchange rate fluctuations, stock market movements and unemployment trends”.
He also reminded to the governments that the OPEC is waiting for regulatory guidelines, in order to reduce the impact of high level speculation on oil prices.

He ended this opening on a positive note: “We are optimistic that the darkest days of financial turmoil and economic recession are behind us. This should leave us with more time to address bigger issues facing mankind, notably the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and the environment.”

That is why the next 155th Extraordinary OPEC Meeting is postponed to December, 22th, 2009, in Luanda, Angola, instead of December 17th, when the upcoming 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC will take place in Copenhagen.

Finally, after more than 30 years, the OPEC Secretariat will be relocated at the end of November 2009 to Vienna’s First District, just before the start of its 50th Anniversary year.

The next Ordinary Meeting of the OPEC Conference will be held in Vienna, Austria, on 17th March 2010, preceded by the Ministerial Monitoring Sub-Committee on 16th March 2010.

For more information: http://www.opec.org/opecna/Press%20Releases/2009/pr092009.htm