The basket oil price used by OPEC to set its output slipped below 20 dollars again today, as the cartel mulled how to react to slumping prices, officials said today.
The latest OPEC basket price, based on an average of seven world crudes, stood at 19.75 dollars, compared to 20.09 dollars Friday, according to OPEC secretariat calculations.
OPEC, which produces 40 per cent of the world's crude, is struggling to react to slumping oil prices since the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
Under normal circumstances, the 11-member cartel would cut its production levels in response to falling prices, but this is seen as politically difficult amid the US-led war and as western economies head towards recession.
OPEC ministers decided at a September 26th meeting to leave their production quotas unchanged.
Under a price-band mechanism, the 10-day period below the $22-$28 target range would trigger an automatic production cut of 500,000 barrels per day.
The 10th trading day was reached last Friday, but OPEC said yesterday it would not immediate trigger the mechanism, and an official said the cartel would wait for at least 48 hours before taking any decision.
AFP