Venezuela,Saudi,Mexico Oil Mins To Meet Friday in Madrid

Thursday, June 5, 2003 06:41 PM ET CARACAS -(<a href=www.quicken.com>Dow Jones)- Oil ministers of Venezuela, Mexico and Saudi Arabia will gather Friday in Madrid to discuss current world oil markets and cooperation of non-OPEC oil producing nations, a spokeswoman of the Oil Ministry said Thursday.

Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez was earlier Thursday quoted as saying he would meet his Saudi Arabian counterpart Ali Naimi and Mexico's Ernesto Martens in the Spanish capital Monday, June 9. "The meeting is Friday afternoon, " the spokeswoman said, adding the three would start their meeting at 1800 local time.

The spokeswoman added Ramirez will travel to Norway on Monday to meet his Norwegian counterpart. Ramirez is set to arrive in Doha in Tuesday afternoon.

Oil ministers from the three countries have met on a regular basis during the past few years in an effort to coordinate oil output policy. Mexico, a major non-OPEC member, has been cooperating with OPEC.

The meeting of the three oil ministers comes just before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, meets in Doha, Qatar, June 11. OPEC has to decide whether to curb production in an effort to anticipate the return of Iraqi oil exports.

OPEC in April decided to hike the ceiling to 25.4 million barrels a day while at the same time, it pledged to remove 2 million b/d from the market.

By Fred Pals, Dow Jones Newswires; 58414-2887461; fred.pals@dowjones.com