Not all OPEC ministers will attend an international energy conference in Saudi Arabia next week, and informal talks on oil output policy may include only Gulf members, OPEC delegates told Reuters.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is not scheduled to meet formally to debate output policy until June.
But after an oil market rally to above $100 a barrel, ministers have been expected to hold discussions on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum (IEF) in Riyadh.
“Everyone was invited to attend the IEF, but not all OPEC ministers will be able to make it, so any informal talks on the sidelines may only include Gulf members,” said an OPEC delegate.
“It’s not a conspiracy or anything; it just depends who can actually make it to Riyadh.”
A total of 95 ministers from producer and consumer countries have been invited to the IEF.
Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazemi is unlikely to attend the event, two oil ministry officials told Reuters.
“There is no plan for the minister to attend the IEF meeting,” said one of them.
This year, Iran’s oil minister is president of OPEC and any output decision would have to be endorsed by him, the officials said.
“No decision can be made unless all OPEC members are present,” said another Iranian oil ministry official.
Popular protest erupted in Egypt on Jan. 25 and led to the resignation of long-time president Hosni Mubarak.
The mood of uprising against non-democratic governments has spread across the Middle East including into OPEC members Iran, Iraq, Libya and Algeria and has helped to spur buying on nervous oil markets.
OPEC ministers, however, have noted there has been no supply disruption and that the markets have plenty of oil.
Regardless of any formal output decision, OPEC members have informally increased output by straying from agreed production curbs.
The group’s current output policy has been intact since December 2008, when it agreed a record cut of 4.2 million barrels per day, leaving plenty of scope for increasing or decreasing production without an official policy change.
