OPEC Chief Warns Against Oil Price Panic.
OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri says he doesn’t expect demand for the cartel’s oil or its production levels to change in the coming year, and he is urging member states not to be alarmed by oil’s current low prices.
“Don’t panic,” el-Badri said Oct. 29 at an impromptu news conference in London, where he was attending a conference. “I am sure the market will balance itself.”
The concern, if not the panic, already is present. The price of the global petroleum benchmark, Brent crude, plunged a little more than $87 a barrel the day he made those comments — nearly $30 less than it was in June, a loss of about one-fourth of its value.
Al-Badri shrugged off this loss, saying he wasn’t worried because price fluctuations don’t reflect “the fundamentals” of the oil market. “Demand is still growing, supply is also growing. OPEC is reviewing the situation,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with the market.”
