EU puts pressure on OPEC to increase crude oil production

THE EU is putting pressure on OPEC to increase crude oil production in order to bring prices down from $28 a barrel to around $20 a barrel.

European energy commissioner Loyola de Palacio said Europe would like crude oil prices to stabilise around $20 per barrel and hopes to get commitments in that direction from OPEC countries at the upcoming international energy forum in Japan. “What we are interested in is for the price of a barrel to stabilise around 20 dollars,” de Palacio told a press briefing yesterday.

“I hope the meeting between producers and consumers in Osaka next week will allow us to obtain certain guarantees from OPEC countries,” in particular on continued supplies, in case Iraq no longer supplies oil to world markets, she added.