The crown prince of Saudi deputy, Mohammed bin Salman, reaffirmed in a new interview with Bloomberg published Saturday that the kingdom will not freeze its crude unless Iran does the same.
The Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi arrived in Doha on Saturday to the OPEC meeting (OPEC) / non-OPEC, but declined to make any statement.
Iran, which is just emerging from a round of international sanctions related to its nuclear program, said Friday that its Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh did not join the negotiations which however will participate the representative Tehran to OPEC.
The Islamic Republic has further reiterated its position: “ Iran can not join the plan to stabilize oil prices as he has not recovered its production level and before export sanctions . ”
Kamel al-Harami, Kuwaiti oil expert, believes that agreement Sunday on a production freeze is still possible even without Iran.
“ Iran is unable to add more than 500,000 barrels per day to production by the end of the year ,” Harami says to AFP in Doha.
“ I think this will not have a great impact on the meeting “, he predicted.
Qatar, the host country, said a “ atmosphere of optimism ” had spread on the eve of the meeting, while the acting Minister of Oil Kuwait, Anas Saleh, said to the press that he too was “ optimistic .”
Oil prices, however, ended sharply lower Friday, victims of renewed skepticism before the crucial meeting in Doha that must collect a dozen countries, mainly in OPEC such as Saudi, but also non-OPEC producers such as Russia.
A project approved in February by Saudi, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela, aims to freeze oil production for the January levels to curb the oversupply until that demand resume in Q3 of 2016.
– ‘limited impact’ –
analysts are divided on the results to be expected from the meeting Doha, which might as well send prices higher or cause again collapse.
Several experts exclude a significant impact on the oil market remained volatile despite the agreement of February. Similarly, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that a Doha deal would have a “ limited impact ” on offer.
Meanwhile, OPEC has indicated before the meeting that oversupply could accelerate. The organization also revised down its growth forecast for world demand this year and could cut more.
The fall of about 60% in crude since June 2014 was caused by oversupply, following a sharp increase in the production of unconventional oil, including oil shale American and the refusal by OPEC in November 2014 to cut production.
The exporting countries have lost hundreds of billions of dollars and charged in budget deficits that led to austerity measures.
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