OPEC says reschedules emergency meeting

By Barbara Lewis

LONDON (Reuters) - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Thursday it had brought forward an emergency meeting to discuss the impact of global recession on oil markets to Friday next week from November.

Pressure has been mounting within the 13-member group to reduce supplies as oil prices have fallen by more than 50 percent from an all-time high of $147.27 hit in July, dragged down by assumptions economic weakness will destroy demand.

On Thursday, U.S. crude fell below $70.

OPEC has not officially said what price it was seeking, but analysts said the market was heading toward unsustainable levels as far as producers were concerned.

"They are concerned that the momentum was going to pull it down to $60... At around $60, it starts to impact the Saudis' budget," said Lawrence Eagles of JP Morgan.

"$80 a barrel is a more comfortable level."

A statement from the Vienna OPEC secretariat on Thursday said only that the OPEC secretary general, following consultations with other ministers, had decided to reschedule a meeting planned for November 18 to October 24.

OPEC last met in September and originally had not been expected to meet again until December 17, but earlier this month, it called an extra meeting to discuss "the global financial crisis, the world economic slowdown and the impact on the oil market."

AT LEAST A MILLION BPD CUT?

Qatar's Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said on Thursday he expected OPEC to cut oil production by one million barrels per day (bpd) or more at next week's meeting.

Asked why the oil group's meeting had been brought forward, he said on Al Jazeera television: "So that we can take action before solutions become more difficult ... Prices have plunged in a very big way."

Ecuador's Oil and Mines Minister Derlis Palacios also said OPEC should cut output, but he did not say by how much.

When asked whether OPEC should reduce supplies at its next meeting, Palacios told Reuters: "Yes, I think that would be a measure of pressure so that prices can recover."

Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said the October 24 meeting would be an opportunity to consider options regarding the world oil price, but that no course of action had yet been proposed.

"I regard it as an exploratory meeting to review facts and options. Not even tentative proposals have been discussed at this stage," Ajumogobia told Reuters.