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GV Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development building in Paris
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SV PAN Arrival of Japanese delegation
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SV PAN United States delegates entering building
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CU & SV Japanese delegation reading briefs (2 shots)
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SV & CU United States delegates seated (2 shots)
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SV Delegates from Canada, Belgium Germany (3 shots)
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SV Secretary general of meeting (2 shots)
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SV Delegates from Australia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Greece, Ireland and Italy (6 shots)
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CU & SV British Secretary of State for Energy David Howell (2 shots)
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SV Delegates from Germany and LV Delegates at table (4 shots)
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Initials BB



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Delegates from the major oil consuming countries met in Paris on Monday (10 December) to work out ways of ensuring that they keep to agreed national import targets. The meeting precedes a gathering of OPEC ministers which will convene in Caracas next week (17 December). At the opening of the Paris meeting European Common Market Energy commissioner Guido Brunner appealed to OPEC to show restraint on oil prices, saying another sharp rise could be economically crippling.

SYNOPSIS: The meeting at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris was brought forward by a month so it would precede the Caracas OPEC conference. The twenty nation International Energy Agency (IEA) called the Paris conference to adopt country-by-country import targets for 1980, when new oil supply shortages are expected.

The IEA is aiming to limit total imports to twenty-four million barrels ad day next year, a reduction of almost five per cent. Mr. Brunner said that although the IEA nations had managed to absorb the doubling of oil prices economic damage had been considerable.

The energy commissioner said the IEA must be able to demonstrate to OPEC that it was taking firm and effective steps to reduce oil consumption. He also said steps have to be taken to monitor and stabilise the oil market. The ministers discussed a procedure for monitoring members' oil imports on a three-monthly basis, so action can be taken quickly if national targets are exceeded. According to the meeting's chairman, governments are lagging behind in measure to reduce oil consumption.