How OPEC’s seminar played out
Hofburg Palace received participants for the 9-10 July Opec Seminar Conference in Vienna.
Ruxandra Iordache | CNBC
For centuries, Vienna’s romantic Hofburg Palace served as a winter residence of the Habsburg dynasty of the Empire – this week, Saudi Copyright, Energy Ministers, Upper CEOs and a series of analyst traders and more welcomed.
Here are some important points:
Palace
Since 1965, Vienna has been the center of the OPEC Secretariat-12-member OPEC Petroleum Manufacturers Alliance.
The Secretariat is directed by a Secretary General-for the first three-year period in 2022, and since then, the former Kuwait official Haitham Al-Ghais, who has been re-appointed for a second time since August 2025.
Before Covid-19 PANDEM, the OPEC Secretariat was a humble ground of daily, high betting and heated debates on the raw output levels between OPEC manufacturers and allies.
The house of the secretariat is a cavernous building in which journalists typically fall into a Bodrum media room. Sometimes, they are allowed to disrupt the areas under the cord and hunt to interpret the OPEC countries as oil ministers and collectively known as OPEC+.
Nevertheless, even the most nostalgic OPEC journalists will accept that the group’s seminar has raised a large place.
Hofburg Palace opened its doors to delegates and media between 9-10 July for a series of sessions focusing on the game status in the oil market, hydrocarbon investment and green energy transition. Invitation and accreditation are attended by the conference.
For the OPEC seminar, the Hofburg Palace put forward an inexhaustible red carpet and armed one of the conference halls that return to ball halls with greater high -tech screens than life playing the cinematic account of OPEC’s oil history.
On July 9, Hofburg Palace, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais (L) and Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman (r) at the OPEC seminar in Vienna.
Ruxandra Iordache | CNBC
“I’m sure this event, ‘Damn, why wasn’t I there?’ There are a few people who said, Abdulaziz bin Salman, the actual leader of Saudi Prince and Opec Alliance.
“We are not blocked by legal concerns and such things, accepting the desire to do his best to ensure that this organization can survive and work and participate in its function.”
Protests
The pastoral charm of Hofburg’s spread streets does not match for a megaphone.
Up to 16:45 on Wednesday, a group of approximately 30 people gathered from the palace at a respectful distance along the way to protest the OPEC seminar, according to the CNBC count.
A protester leading to cheers who do not want to be defined briefly said that the show supports the Zorlu Gaza settlement targeted by an Israeli military campaign that has been retaliating since the Hamas terrorist attacks in October 2023.
Protesters gathered outside the Hofburg Palace in Vienna during the OPEC seminar on July 9th.
Ruxandra Iordache | CNBC
“The Arab regimes sitting on abundant oil sources will stop the expansion of the West and give enough strength to challenge the West. However, the US chose to strengthen the European borders and to enrich them with real estate.” He said.
On the ground, protesters are an oil embargo and The closure of the Strait of the Hormuz-the moon reiterates a threat made by Tehran during his 12-day war with Israel.
Many Arab states, including Hamas supporter Iran, expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cases. The CNBC reached the OPEC Secretary to comment on the protests.
Red carpet
Who is the OPEC Seminar speakers, the ministers of OPEC countries, allies, key consumers such as India and Türkiye, as well as the CEOs of the biggest names in the sector BP– Totalenenergies– Shell and Saudi Aramco.
CNBC tried to cut a few of these delegations.
Due to the pressure of European and US sanctions, heavy producers, which would probably be deported by journalists, were not particularly ministers from Russia and Iran.
Iranian Petrol Minister Mohsen Paknejad also promised to open through a video conference on Wednesday in a speech that includes some rare political interpretations. He emphasized the risks of armed rises to the raw markets only weeks after OPEC’s third largest manufacturer was locked in a 12 -day war with Israel.
“This vital and growing industry needs peace to serve the mission of promoting prosperity at national, regional and global levels and to encourage cooperation and development in a rapidly changing and constantly complicated world.” He said.
The red carpet for the OPEC seminar during July 9-10 in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.
Ruxandra Iordache | CNBC
When entering the conference, the members of the press cannot withstand their enthusiasm: OPEC+-And Eight-national subtitle-special video conference, which makes voluntary interruptions in raw production, is gathering more and more and limiting opportunities for press briefings.
In the OPEC seminar, the action does not start from the red carpet. Generally, journalists, ministers often read hotels on the way to the conference, hoping to go to the conference. Emma Graham from CNBC also likened the event to a wedding – nobody marries, but journalists can once again capture their friends who reported the oil market.
Otherwise, most OPEC reporting is now made for market views and indicators in front of and during policy meetings, which are now welded buckets and probe delegates. Next, on August 3, between eight members who are gradually (and increasingly faster), 2.2 million barrels per day loosens the production outage of 2.2 million barrels per day.
