MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The president stressed that the country promoted dialogue between oil producing countries to reach deals which would allow to sustain the level of investment that the industry needed, as well as to meet the world energy demand.
"We can say that we are close to reaching an agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries, and we hope that we can announce this agreement in September to stabilize the market and improve oil prices," Maduro said Sunday as quoted by Radio Nacional de Venezuela.
Global oil prices plunged from $115 to less than $30 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016, hitting their lowest levels since 2003 amid the ongoing glut in global oil supply and causing significant problems for energy companies and oil-producing countries. Up to 96 percent of Venezuela’s budget depends on oil, forcing the country to into a state of economic emergency.
In order to support oil prices, both OPEC member states and non-cartel members made a number of efforts to freeze oil output, but these attempts failed.
