Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela ready to freeze oil production at January level

MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela are ready to freeze oil production at the level of January, if other oil-producing countries join this initiative, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday after the meeting in Qatar. "After the meeting, four countries - Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela - are willing to freeze oil production at the level of January, if other manufacturers join the initiative," the Russian Energy Ministry reported his words. The possible reduction of freeze of global oil production has been in discussion for a long time. At the OPEC summit in December 2015. At the time, the cartel failed to agree on the amount of production quotas, and decided to align its quota with the actual production. This led to a sharp decline in oil prices. Earlier, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the subject of the possible consultations in February of OPEC and non-member oil producers could be the reduction of oil production. Prior to that, Transneft Chairman of the Board and President of Transneft Nikolai Tokarev said Saudi Arabia proposed such consultations. Read more