By Xinhua
Riyadh : The third OPEC summit in the organization’s 47-year history opened in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Saturday afternoon amid surging oil prices.
Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, the host of the summit, presided the opening ceremony while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the host of the previous summit in 2000, gave the opening speech.
The leaders of the oil cartel’s 12 member states, except Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, attended the opening ceremony.
Indonesia was represented by Vice President Jusuf Kalla on behalf of President Susilo.
In his opening speech after a brief prayer, Venezuela’s Chavezre called the 47-year history of the OPEC and the previous two summits which was held in Algeria in 1975 and Caracas in 2000.
Chavez denounced the United State as the deep and underlined reason behind all, saying “all its aggression is for oil” and the only way to seek justice and peace in the world political system is to deepen cooperation among OPEC member states.
He warned against a possible war on Iran or Venezuela, saying that “if there is a war, the world oil price would surge to 200 (U.S.) dollars per barrel instead of the current 100 dollars.”
Chavez also praised OPEC’s political role in today’s world, urging the oil cartel to show “leadership in the third world” to protect developing countries and encourage rational use of oil among them.
OPEC currently groups 12 member states of Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Venezuela.
It will re-accept Ecuador, a former member who withdrew in 1992,as a formal member during the summit.
Supplying 40 percent of the global oil demand and controlling 80 percent of the world reserves, OPEC produces about 32 million barrels of oil a day and the daily basket price, based on production in 12 different countries, stood at 87.01 dollars on Thursday.