OPEC President Says Cartel Facing ‘Challenging’ Time

 

                    A Nigeria’s oil minister and the president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said OPEC is facing a challenging time due to the fall in oil prices and many members and non-members are “suffering immensely”.
                   She spoke while answering questions from journalists at the State House, Abuja, on her preparedness to assume her position as president of the 12-member group which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil requirement.
              
“This is a very challenging time as you know for OPEC and for the global crude oil wells as a whole. Quite clearly, there has been a battle of wits between certain OPEC countries, the big players and certain non-OPEC countries who are big players in the world crude oil production market at this time.
So it is a challenging time to take over as OPEC president at this time and our prayer of course is that we will be able to stabilise the crude oil prices over this period because it is critical.
Even as we speak, Venezuela has gone into austerity measures and is measuring food because they were completely dependent on oil. Angola, Algeria, Iran are all under duress as is Nigeria because it has affected our budgetary benchmark. And even non-OPEC countries like Russia who will not cut production are already seeing a drop in the value of their Ruble.”
She also stated that the organisation is battling the challenge of how to preserve its share of the world’s oil market, while maintaining a price that suits its members, also confirmed that the OPEC will be calling for an extraordinary meeting early next year to re-strategise on how to enhance the stability in the production and supply of oil in the world market

It would be recalled that Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has emerged as the first female president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.