Vienna—Why, a journalist asked OPEC sec-retary general Abdalla el-Badri after OPECconcluded its latest meeting in Vienna, didit take the 12 ministers five hours merely toagree to extend the group’s 30 million b/dceiling? “Now we are meeting only twice ayear. That’s why it took us so long,” Badrisaid, half jokingly.Not so, says an OPEC insider.OPEC has been politicized to the pointof stalemate, unable to see “eye to eye” onany matter of importance such as the selec-tion of a secretary general to replace Badriwhen his term ends in December and theissue that is believed to have detained theministers for five hours instead of the sched-uled one hour.
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