The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Eng. Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi stressed that the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) aims at preserving stability of the world oil prices. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency following the conclusion of OAPEC's conference here today, he pointed out that price fluctuations affect all, therefore the Organization seeks for stable and moderate prices in the world market. Al-Naimi noted that that the reduction of Saudi oil output ceiling has no effect on contracts concerning companies. He added that we always seek for moderation in the market to reduce the effect not only on the Kingdom, but on the world market as a whole, affirming that any negative effect on prices affect oil producing countries. Al-Naimi indicated that the Saudi output ceiling was raised above 1 million barrels per day five months ago. Now we reduce our output to limit price decrease and the effect of this reduction will appear after more than three months, the Minister said and added then we will come back to the ordinary output volume of 8,078,000 barrels per day, the agreed quota. He noted that the Kingdom competes in selling operations and sets prices on competition basis. Al-Naimi said OPEC members produce only 40 percent of the world oil production, while non-OPEC states produce 60 percent of the total world oil production. ''This means that OPEC can not control the world oil prices or output,'' he said and added, " We try as we can to coordinate our efforts with non-OPEC countries to stabilize markets.''
