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OPEC consults on oil price drop, no meeting yet
Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:27 AM GMT139

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC ministers are consulting over oil's sharp drop to just over $61 a barrel from its mid-July peak of $78.40, but have not decided whether to hold an emergency meeting, an OPEC official said on Wednesday.

"Consultations are ongoing, but there has not been a decision to hold an emergency meeting as of yet," he said.

A Gulf source said any emergency meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was unlikely before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ends in late October.

OPEC, which pumps a third of the world's oil, said on Tuesday that lower oil prices could harm investment in the industry. OPEC President Edmund Daukoru said "something must be done" to steady the market and that the group was already talking internally about the price drop.

"It is unlikely there will be a (OPEC) meeting during Ramadan," the Gulf source said, adding that an annual meeting of Gulf Arab oil ministers had been postponed to November from October.

Ramadan is expected to end around October 22 and will be followed by a three-day feast holiday.

Earlier this month, OPEC oil ministers decided to keep oil output unchanged despite falling prices. Their next scheduled meeting is on December 14 in Nigeria.

In a statement issued after its last meeting on September 11, OPEC agreed that Daukoru, "would make the necessary consultations prior to the December meeting should market conditions so warrant.