Oil meeting likely to happen in April

DOHA, March 16, 2016 – Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, Qatari minister of energy and industry and current president of OPEC, has called for a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Doha on April 17, various news outlets reported on Wednesday.

The meeting would be a follow-up to the February gathering in the Qatari capital that saw a handful of countries, including Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, agree on the need to freeze oil output. A cap on production, Al Sada said in statement, would “put a floor under oil prices.” Without mentioning countries by name, the minister noted that 15 OPEC and non-OPEC were in support of the proposal.

Kuwait and the UAE, both member countries, have on several occasions backed the freeze initiative. Indeed, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Acting Oil Minister Anas Al Saleh on Wednesday was among the first to accept the Qatari invitation, the Kuwait News Agency reported.

Sources familiar with the proposed April meeting said that Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak and his Saudi counterpart Ali Al Naimi would discuss the meeting via telephone later on Wednesday.

On a campaign to reclaim market share after years of international sanctions, Iran has been the most vocal in its opposition to keep output at January 2016 levels. While Iraqi initially called the idea “ridiculous,” Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Monday said a plan to cap oil production would be “acceptable.”

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