Qatar’s energy minister, Mohammed al-Sada, said key producers from within and outside the OPEC cartel will meet on April 17in Doha in an effort to stabilise the oil market.
He said 15 countries accounting for some 73% of global oil output supported the initiative, including the world’s top exporter Saudi Arabia, and Russian Federation.
However, despite Iran’s reluctance, oil is moving higher as analysts expect other major oil producers to follow suit with production freezes, which will go a long way to boosting oil prices.
Prices have moved ahead too far, too fast over the past few weeks and so a pullback is expected, especially since economic data have not made a strong enough case to support prices at current levels. The sanctions also cut crude exports from a peak of 2.5-million barrels a day before 2011 to just more than 1-million barrels a day in recent years.
Singapore trade minister S. Iswaran told a gas conference that crude prices are likely to remain US$30 to US$50 per barrel this year due to oversupply, a slowing Chinese economy and Japan restarting nuclear power plants.
Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar in February proposed an accord to cap oil output and reduce a worldwide surplus. The Qatari capital is one option as a location for the talks, said Novak.
Iran now reportedly produces around 3.1 million bpd of oil.
It was not clear which countries besides the original four would attend.
A freeze in output would at least stop adding to the excess supply that has caused prices to collapse from levels above $100 a barrel seen in June 2014.
Source: Examiner Gazette, 19 March 2016
