Opec is poised for emergency consultations as oil prices fell below $55 a barrel on Thursday for the first time in 22 months. Earlier, the International Energy Agency had said oil demand would grow this year at its lowest rate since 1985.

Several members of the oil producers’ cartel are scheduled to meet in Cairo on November 29 for a regular meeting of Arab ministers, but the gathering is now likely to be broadened to include all the cartel’s members, an industry official familiar with Opec said.