KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR: And we now have the report of the OPEC meeting from Austria that we were trying the get to you earlier. Here's Tom Bogdanowicz with the details.</s>TOM BOGDANOWICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna are trying to catch oil prices before they drop any further. The global economic slowdown was tugging them downwards. Now the likely resumption of Iraqi exports could make them fall yet again.</s>RILWANU LUKMAN, NIGERIAN OIL MINISTER: The more you put the</s>BOGDANOWICZ: Iraqi officials say oil exports will resume if the U.N. renews Iraq food-for-oil program without conditions attached. OPEC ministers say they will be watching closely the impact on prices.</s>CHAKIB KHELIL, OPEC PRESIDENT: There is concern not to raise production.</s>BOGDANOWICZ: New Iraqi exports may depress oil prices in the short term, analysts warn that oil demand is set to rise sharply.</s>LEO DROLLAS, CENTER FOR GLOBAL ENERGY STUDIES: Between the second and the third quarter, we expect demand to increase by 1.8 million barrels, which is just about what Iraqi oil would cover, a little bit more than that, but then there's another half a million barrels, from the third into and the fourth quarter, which will need some kind of response from OPEC, otherwise stocks will begin to slip downward and put pressure upwards on the price. Some response from OPEC needed, some time later on, possibly in September.</s>BOGDANOWICZ TANONAKA: An informal session of OPEC oil ministers at this hotel is expected to leave OPEC oil production quotas unchanged. Iraqi issue is sure to receive careful attention after OPEC's formal session in few hour's time, there may be more signals how OPEC plans to respond to rapid movement in the oil price. Tom Bogdanowicz, CNN Financial News, Vienna.
OPEC Ministers Meeting Trying to Catch Oil Prices Before They Drop Any Further