Demand, supply no longer dominant factors

Supply and demand are no longer most influential factors that affect prices of oil and other causes have proven much more effective in setting prices of the crude, opined Secretary General of the Organization of Arab Exporting Petroleum (OAPEC)) Abbas Al-Naqqi. The other factors that turned much more influential include geopolitical considerations, speculations, status of global crude reserves, rate of the US dollar, conditions at global financial markets, major shares, weather forecast and production and exports, said Al-Naqqi in a statement on Monday. Al-Naqqi, whose remarks came in a statement, issued on the occasion of the upcoming the Gulf Petroleum Conference and Exhibition (2012), due to be held on April 9, expressed his belief that events that prevailed across the Arab world, over the past months, did not result in significant effects on the prices of oil. Price of the crude rose from USD 90 per barrel in the end of 2010 to some USD 121 in end of April 2011, due to noticeable intervention by speculators in the market, unfounded jitters and concern toward events that occurred in the Middle East and Africa that acquire more than 60 percent of the global oil reserves and control more than 40 percent of the global oil trade. However, the price of the basket of crudes of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped to USD 107.3 pb, during the first nine months of 2011, when some producers increased the output to make up for shortage of supplies, and as a result of uncertainty regarding the global economic forecast that pushed down predictions on prospected crude demand. Regarding development and expansion of OAPEC, Al-Naqqi indicated that it has significantly developed since its establishment in Beirut in 1968, when Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya signed an accord to set it up, with headquarters to be based in Kuwait. Algeria, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia had later joined the organization. Currently, OAPEC comprises 11 member states including Tunisia. Peoples of the member states constitute up to 64 percent of the whole Arab nation. It puts out 27.3 percent of the global production of oil, in addition to 13.8 percent of natural gas and has more than 56 percent of the globe oil reserves. The upcoming convention, organized by Investors Group, is scheduled on April 9-10, under the theme, "Gulf petroleum integration ... outlooks and challenges." It will be sponsored by Kuwait's Minister of Oil and Chairman of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Hani Hussein.