MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are set to meet in the Austrian capital Vienna on Friday to assess the global crude oil market, their output target and sales policy.
Most of the semi-annual meeting will be held behind closed doors. All 12 member nations are expected to attend. Russia’s energy chief Alexander Novak will also be present.
The cartel last met in November 2014 when it decided not to reduce output to root out higher-cost US producers, much to dismay of countries like Venezuela and Russia that heavily depend on oil sales.
This time around, the organization, which consists of Arab, African and South American oil producers, is equally unlikely to cut its total daily oil output below 30 million barrels a day, a Bloomberg survey suggested in early June.
The reason for this is solidifying oil prices that rebounded in spring 2015 to the price of $60-65 per barrel. The OPEC Secretariat estimated the price of the group’s basket of twelve crudes stood at $62.32 a barrel on Tuesday, compared with $60.52 the previous day.
