UAE says OPEC will stop price of oil at $30 a barrel By Reuters DUBAI - UAE Oil Minister Obaid bin Saif al-Nasseri said yesterday that oil cartel OPEC would act immediately if prices rose above an acceptable level following Tuesday's devastating attacks in the United States.

"If we find prices above an acceptable level, OPEC would take the necessary measures," he told reporters, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

When asked later what that level was, he replied, referring to a basket of OPEC oil prices: "Any price above $30 is obviously unacceptable."

The OPEC basket price currently stands at $26 a barrel.

"If there is a need for correcting prices and pumping more oil, OPEC would take the necessary decision and it would be carried out promptly and quickly," Nasseri told the reporters. "We will not take advantage of what has happened in U.S."

Nasseri added, however, that there was no shortage of oil in the market and prices had risen because of what he described as speculation.

OPEC would carefully study oil supply, demand, stockpile levels and prices at an OPEC meeting later this month.

Prices have surged 10 percent since Tuesday's attacks on fears about U.S. military retaliation and possible disruption to supplies of oil from the Middle East, which sits on most of the world's oil reserves.

OPEC's 11 members account for about 40 percent of world oil production and 60 percent of world oil exports.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 16, 2001