OPEC will hold urgent meeting if prices fall below $100:Iranian oil minister

TEHRAN,Dec.24(MNA) - Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on Sunday that OPEC will hold an extraordinary meeting if oil prices come down below $100. “According to projections, oil prices will remain higher than $100 per barrel in 2013. However, if the prices go under $100 OPEC will hold urgent meeting to cut production ceiling,” Qasemi said. During the 162nd regular ministerial meeting of the OPEC in Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday, member states agreed to maintain the organization’s production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day (bpd). OPEC, which provides about 35 percent of the world’s oil, is a permanent intergovernmental organization of 12 oil-exporting countries, including Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at 107.20 dollars a barrel on Thursday, compared with $107.10 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.