“I believe we have a common position worked out. We looked at different variants, including of doing nothing and retaining the volume of production, as well as the variant that we proposed and another variant proposed earlier, which was retaining extraction at the level reached taking into account the growth in demand, which will happen anyway. If there are no additional supplies, then this imbalance and overproduction will decrease at a minimum of 1.3 million barrels per day. This will be a positive signal that is clear for the market of what will happen and not violate any market principles,” Novak said in a televised interview on the Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program.
Consultations on freezing oil production to help stabilize global oil prices are expected to be held with Mexico and Norway, Alexander Novak said.
“Obviously relevant consultations will be held with them. By the way, when we met in Vienna for the first time in 2014 when the prices had just begun to fall, Mexico participated in these talks, therefore I think they’ll also be constructive in consultations in regard to those approaches we discussed,” Novak said in a televised interview on the Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program.
Consultations among oil-producing countries on the freezing of extractions should end by March 1, Russian Energy Minister added.
“We agreed that all consultations should end by March 1,” Novak said in a televised interview on the Vesti v Subbotu weekly news program.
Global oil prices plunged from $115 to less than $30 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016, hitting their lowest levels since 2003, mostly because of prolonged global oversupply and weak demand.
On Tuesday, the energy ministers of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar met in Doha. The four countries agreed to keep their average monthly oil output throughout 2016 at January levels if other major oil producers also did so. According to Caracas, the agreement was later supported by Ecuador, Algeria, Nigeria, Oman and Kuwait.
