Senior oil ministry officials from OPEC's 11 member states will meet Nov. 17 in Vienna to prepare a rare summit of the cartel's heads of state and discuss the oil market outlook, an OPEC spokesman said. "They will flesh out the agenda for the heads of state summit and discuss the medium-term objective for OPEC, the oil market situation, supply and demand," said Farouk Muhammed, spokesman for the Vienna-based OPEC secretariat. The meeting will be followed in early December by talks in Caracas of senior diplomats and oil ministry officials, plus OPEC Secretary-General Rilwanu Lukman, to complete preparatory work for the summit on March 30. OPEC oil ministers are expected to hold their next full conference in Caracas on March 27, to review a 12-month agreement to cut production.
