Key Officials Enter OPEC Talks in Flexible Mood

Key OPEC leaders Wednesday stressed a willingness to be flexible as they began crisis talks on rescuing oil prices from the sharp fall that has been caused by a world glut.

The president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Algeria’s Sadek Boussena, met in Algiers with the oil ministers of Kuwait and Indonesia in preparation for a crucial conference in Geneva on July 25.

A glut blamed on quota violations by several members, including Kuwait, has resulted in prices falling about one-third this year.

Indonesia’s Ginanjar Kartasasmita said at Algiers airport that he thought the slide had “reached the bottom, more or less” but agreed that much may depend on whether OPEC reaches an accord on production quotas in Geneva that all members would observe.

Kuwait and another Gulf Arab state, the United Arab Emirates, have been over-producing and demanding that they get higher quotas in any new accord.

Others, including Iraq, Iran and Algeria, first want existing accords obeyed to revive average spot market prices at least to OPEC’s declared target of $18 a barrel, compared to less than $14 now.

They cannot see how demands for sharply higher quotas can be met without raising the ceiling on total OPEC output to levels that would expand, rather than mop up, the glut.