MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has decided to maintain its existing oil quotas, Saudi Arabia’s Petroleum Minister Ali Naimi said Friday.
"We left the old quotas," Naimi told reporters after an OPEC ministerial meeting.
Earlier in the day, Iraqi Oil Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said that OPEC ministers would discuss on Friday the issue of raising quotas on the extraction of oil.
The market oversupply led to global oil prices plummeting in 2014 and early 2015, exacerbated by OPEC decision to maintain its daily extraction quotas during its previous meeting in November.
Global oil prices have dropped almost twofold against the 2014 summer levels, when the price of Brent crude stood at about $115 per barrel.
Recently, oil prices have stabilized at about $65 per barrel.
