OPEC Avoids Confrontation on Fuel Taxes : Energy: Oil producers will form a group to study offsetting the impact of new levies. Some say that could mean higher prices.

Ministers of 25 OPEC and other oil-producing states shied away from confrontation with the West on Tuesday when they met to cry foul over plans to levy carbon taxes on petroleum.

The talk in the marble-clad opulence of Oman’s Al-Bustan Palace hotel was about dialogue, not a push for higher oil prices to spike planned new U.S. and European Community fuel taxes.

“We are serious about not wanting these taxes,” said Alirio Parra of Venezuela, president of the 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. “But this is not a confrontational meeting.”

A statement issued after the one-day session said prevailing prices are too low and that a “new wave of tax increases which are discriminatory against oil will have a destabilizing effect on the oil market.”

OPEC members and other producers agreed to form a working group, which the statement said will examine the probable impact of new energy taxes and “options open to them to mitigate the impacts on their economies.”

Some delegates spoke of that as a veiled threat that higher prices are one of the options, but the statement itself called for further cooperation with consumers.

The keynote speech was given by Oil Minister Said bin Ahmed al-Shanfari of Oman, a member of the non-OPEC group, which also includes Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mexico.

“There is no categorical scientific evidence to support the claim that burning of oil fuel causes global warming,” he said.

Al-Shanfari said participants at the talks, including OPEC leader Saudi Arabia, control 80% of world oil output and need to defend their interests.

“If the price goes up, the amount of oil used will go down. If oil is relatively cheap, it invites additional taxes,” Jim Nugent, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, which speaks for Texas oil interests, told reporters.

“I do not think anyone has a definitive answer to the problem.”