WITNESS: Speculation and sandwiches as OPEC burns night oil

Barbara Lewis is deputy energy editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa for Reuters. She has worked at Reuters for eight years and has covered numerous OPEC meetings over the past decade. In the following story she describes the tensions and fervour of an 'ordinary' oil exporters' quota-setting meeting -- in Ramadan and with oil prices around $100 a barrel.

By Barbara Lewis

VIENNA (Reuters) - Most meetings of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are tagged "extraordinary", but some are more extraordinary than others.

Five-star hotels are regularly transformed from the serene and stylish to the downright unruly as journalists in pursuit of oil ministers send potted plants flying and drown out gently tinkling lobby pianists with their frantic questions.

Reporters have even broken limbs in the race to deliver every syllable uttered by the Saudi oil minister, often the man with more influence than any other over multi-billion crude markets because his country is the world's leading exporter.

The 149th meeting of OPEC, held earlier this month at its Vienna headquarters, was officially an ordinary meeting, meaning it would cover unexciting regular business, such as accounts and appointments.

But as oil headed back down towards $100 a barrel and tensions mounted between some members keener to see a higher price than others, its complications became Byzantine even by OPEC's standards.

In the run-up to the ministers' plenary session, which begins with journalists mobbing ministers in a ritual indecorously known as the 'gang bang', all the signs were that OPEC would do what it has done so often before.

With oil prices still very high, it would be content to roll over its official quotas and then discreetly adjust the amount pumped above official limits regardless of formal policy.