Opec row sees angry Saudi Arabia shouldering output rise

Vienna – A RIFT between Opec’s big oil producers spilled into the public arena in Vienna today, as the group’s most difficult meeting in years ended early and angrily. It leaves dominant member Saudi Arabia, which failed to secure a group-wide rise in output, plotting its own course to ease prices, which analysts believe are now a danger to the global economy. The impasse annoyed Saudi Arabia and its oil minister Ali Naimi, but it may have little impact on supply. The kingdom and other important Mideast Gulf producers are likely now to lift output on their own to meet a supply balance that Opec’s own data show will grow even tighter in the third quarter. But the internal fallout of an acrimonious meeting could rumble on and raises big questions over Opec’s unity. An angry Naimi said it had been “one of the worst meetings we have ever had”. The...