Press Release

OPEC holds Third Summit in Riyadh

OFID Director-General speaks of way forward

28/2007 November 16, 2007 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, begins its Third Summit of Heads of State and Government tomorrow in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The summit is to consider, among others, issues of energy supply and demand, the promotion of international prosperity and environmental protection. The summit was preceded by an international Symposium on Energy and Development.

Expected in attendance will be leaders of most Member Countries with ranking delegations. OFID, the OPEC Fund for International Development, is participating. OFID’s delegation is headed by Director-General Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish, who described the Summit as a milestone. He said the meeting will point at the way forward, strengthen the Organization and reassure the global community “in these anxious times of expectant talk about customary energy supply and alternatives.” Mr. Al-Herbish expects endorsement, by the summit, of the continuing endeavors of OFID in development cooperation. The OFID Director-General was speaking in Vienna before leaving for Riyadh.

Mr. Al-Herbish called attention to the preparatory work preceding the Summit, highlighting its smooth organization and the related, laudable efforts by host country, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to make the Summit a success.

The Riyadh Summit is expected to re-endorse OPEC’s mission to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, so as to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers as well as fair return on capital to those investing in the oil industry.

The two previous Summits were in Algiers, Algeria, 1975; and Caracas, Venezuela, 2000. The Caracas Summit endorsed the spirit of the creation of OFID and the work the institution has been engaged in since its establishment. Indeed, OFID resulted from discussions at the Algiers Summit, where the idea of an OPEC collective financial aid facility was conceived. Since then OFID has gone on to finance over 1,200 projects, worldwide, cooperating with a total 121 countries spread across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.

The Riyadh Summit draws to a close November 18 with an expected Riyadh Declaration. It will be the first summit to be attended by new OPEC Member State Angola. Following the Summit, OPEC oil and energy ministers would meet December 5 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This would be their 146 th Extraordinary Meeting.

OFID will be streaming the summit events on www.ofid.org.