OPEC OIL PRICES

Members seek higher prices

Oil ministers from the influential cartel meeting in Vienna have indicated that the price of oil may be going up. The say that their goal is to have prices rise above the current level of $25 a barrel for a basket of OPEC crudes. That tranlates into well over $30 a barrel for the US benchmak West Texas Intermediate crude. The Paris - based organisation for Economic Corperation and Development, which brings together major western industrial nations has pronounced this an 'unwelcome development' but OPEC has shrugged this off. Chakib Khelil, the Algerian oil minister says he does not see their action having ' a tremendous impact on inflation in Europe and the US.'