2005 - OPEC

million barrels a day for a period of three months from 1 October 2005, should it be called
for, had helped calm markets after the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
in the Gulf of Mexico.
They recognised, however, that the continued and serious tightness in the global refinery
system would maintain strains on market stability in the next few years, which calls for more
efforts to create an environment that promotes downstream investments in major consuming
countries and regions.
In 2005, the EU-OPEC Energy Dialogue moved forward significantly and is now viewed as an
integral event in the yearly agendas of both parties. Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah,
Malcolm Wicks, UK Energy Minister with Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Minister of Energy of Kuwait and President of the OPEC
Conference.
Minister of Energy of Kuwait and President of the OPEC Conference said of the dialogue in
November: “We are only at the beginning of the road, and it is a very long road. Perhaps it
is a road with no ending, because our dialogue has been set up on a permanent basis.”
The dialogue is seen by the EU as part of a broader approach to strengthen energy relation-
ships with the main oil and gas suppliers, and by OPEC as a significant further step in its
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Reuters