Opec meets to discuss oil price falls

Oil cartel Opec is expected to recommend a cut in production later today when it holds its extraordinary meeting in Vienna.

Opec representatives meeting at the organisation's headquarters are responding to falls in crude oil prices from their high of $147.27 in the summer to the $60.27 level seen yesterday.

Anxiety within the cartel over falling prices proved strong enough that it moved the meeting's date forward from November 18th to today.

And analysts now expect a cut in production of between one and two million barrels as a result, which will have the desired effect of preventing further falls.

Opec president and Algerian oil minister Chakib Khelil told reporters yesterday the cuts would have to be made in an effort to maintain prices between $60 and $90.

"There is an excess of supply definitely, there's an excess of stocks in the market," the Bloomberg news agency quoted him as saying.

"We have a recession, we have falling demand."

High oil prices will inevitably have a knock-on effect on the global economy, which is reeling in the wake of sustained market losses in recent weeks.

But Opec's members argue the price staying below $100 will not have a negative impact.