Yesterday at the meeting in Doha Energy Ministers of oil producing countries discussed the agreement to freeze oil production at the level of January 2016, but failed to reach an agreement.
Bloomberg reported that this next similar meeting will be held in June after the OPEC conference.
The participants of the meeting said the countries need more time to agree on the conditions of freezing of oil production.
Iran did not send its delegation to the talks in Qatar. “We have already told the OPEC member-states and also non-OPEC member-states, such as Russia, that they have to understand that Iran is coming back to the market and it does not make sense for us to stop at the January production level,” Zanganeh explained Iran’s position.
Bloomberg wrote on Saturday quoting Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman that Er Riyad will not limit oil production, if at the meeting in Doha the remaining producing countries, including Iran, fail to agree to freeze production. “If the main producing countries refuse to freeze the production, we are not going to do that as well. If we are not going to limit production, then we will sell oil when any opportunity arises,” said the Prince.’
Mohammad bin Salman also added that Saudi Arabia has the reserve capacities, which it can use. He said that Saudi Arabia can immediately increase production up to 11.5 million barrels a day and within six months increase it up to 12.5 million barrels a day.
In February 2016 Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed to freeze oil production at the level of January 2016, if other oil producing countries join this initiative. Then this issue has been discussed at different levels for a long time. It has been decided to hold a meeting in the capital of Qatar Doha to coordinate the positions and conclude the agreement.
Experts of Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Saxo Bank believe if the talks fail, then Brent oil quotes could drop from the current $43.00 per barrel to $30.00-35.00 per barrel.
On Friday Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that there are no ground to expect growth of oil prices and the authorities are getting ready to work with the oil prices at $40.00 per barrel.
