Business Notes Energy

The setting for the meeting was Taif, a restful summer retreat outside the Saudi Arabian city of Jidda, but the mood of the participants was far from relaxed. Representatives from nine of the 13 feuding members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries got together informally last week to debate what to do about falling oil prices. Several members of the group, including Nigeria and Ecuador, have been offering under-the-table discounts and exceeding their OPEC-decreed production quotas. As a result, Saudi Arabia's King Fahd directed Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, his Oil Minister, to deliver an ultimatum to the rest of OPEC. The King's blunt message: Saudi Arabia, which has been holding oil exports under its quota to help prop up prices, would not keep on curbing sales if other OPEC members continued to cheat.

The only thing that the delegates could agree on was moving up the date of the next regular OPEC meeting in Geneva from July 22 to June 30. By that time, ! the group's predicament may be even worse. No sooner had the Taif session broken up than Britain announced that it was lowering the price of its high- quality North Sea Brent crude by $1.25 per bbl., to $26.65.