Opec, IEF to fight price volatility

Opec, the International Energy Agency and the International Energy Forum (IEF) will announce a "joint action plan" this week to combat oil-market volatility, IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said.

The plan will tackle "volatility of the price and other issues like the outlook of the energy market," he told reporters Monday before the biennial IEF ministerial meeting that started today in Cancun, Mexico. "We'll have closer dialogue with our organisations and we'll see what we can do."

The accord involves pooling expertise and sharing data to improve transparency, two people with direct knowledge of the plan said. They declined to be identified because the information hadn't been made public. Details of the agreement will be announced March 31 at the end of the meeting.