OPEC Secretary General hopes oil prices to recover by end of 2015

ABU DHABI, December 21. /TASS/. Prices of crude oil could recover as early as by the end of 2015, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri told reporters on Sunday on the sidelines of the 10th Arab Energy Conference. He said it was impossible to assess the market situation appropriately at the moment and the oil producers should rather wait for the second half of 2015 so as to see how the market would react to the currently low oil prices. Energy Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Suhail al-Mazraouei, said earlier on the same day he hoped the situation in the world market would stabilize over the short term. "One of the main causes /of the downhill slide of oil prices -- TASS/ is irresponsible production by some producers outside the organization /OPEC/, some of whom are newcomers," he said. "OPEC's decision, which aims to provide the market with time to re-balance, is correct, strategic and useful to the global economy," Al-Mazraouei said adding that it would lead to stability in prices in the final run. He said the organization of Arab oil exporters had evidenced a considerable price slump, which had wielded notable impact on the economic situation in the regional oil producing states. Al-Mazraouei called for elaborating the measures that would stabilize the market of energy resources and would thus consolidate the regional countries' positions in the global market of crude oil. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi voiced the confidence that the oil market would resume growth soon and he reaffirmed the Saudi government's unwillingness to cut down the output of crude. The country will keep its production quota along with other OPEC member-states, he said. Al-Naimi blamed the steep fall of oil prices on the countries that do not have OPEC membership. Saudi Arabia and many other member-states had been looking for ways of how to stabilize the market but the reluctance of non-OPEC countries to cooperate, the spread of misinformation and market speculations brought about the slump, he said. Upon the results of a session that OPEC held in Vienna on November 27, a decision was taken to keep the effective daily output quota at 30 million barrels. The decision predestined a further downward trend of the world prices for hydrocarbons. OPEC has twelve member-states -- Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Venezuela. Egypt, Mexico, Oman, and Russia have an observer status in the organization. The headquarters of the global oil cartel is located in Vienna. Read more