Oil, energy ministers of OPEC member states to hold cartel’s 168th meeting

VIENNA, December 4. /TASS/. The petroleum and energy ministers of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will hold the 168th meeting of the cartel on Friday, OPEC said in a release. The OPEC member countries will most likely not adopt the decision to cut oil production, but will admit Indonesia in the organisation, analysts told TASS. In addition, they said that a sharp rise in oil prices on the meeting results was not expected. At the previous OPEC meeting, held in June, the cartel members decided to maintain oil production quotas unchanged at 30 million barrels a day, despite the sharp drop in world oil prices. Last year, OPEC decided against cutting production. As a result, crude prices have fallen 40 percent and are trading below $50 a barrel Bloomberg reported. The International Energy Agency expects the strategy will pay off in the long run for OPEC members that can increase output. The IEA reasons that higher-cost non-OPEC producers, including the U.S. shale industry, will be "driven (by the lower price) to give ground." Most OPEC members say that a fair price for oil would be $70 to $80 a barrel. Saudi Arabia is expected to come under pressure at the meeting from the other OPEC members who will call for cutting oil production to maintain the prices. In particular, Iran has demanded to cut the daily ceiling of oil production of the organisation members by 1.3 million barrels and comply with the production ceiling set by the cartel at 30 million barrels back in 2011. At the same time, Iran intends to restore the volume of its oil production and export to the level it had before the sanctions and has repeatedly said it is ready to increase oil exports by at least 1 million barrels during five to six months after the lifting of sanctions. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro put forward a similar initiative and said that his country sought to cut oil production by 5% to consolidate the prices. In addition, the meeting will also discuss the issue of restoration of Indonesia’s membership in the organisation. Indonesia had quitted OPEC on January 1, 2009, due to a sharp decline in oil production - the country turned from an oil exporter into oil importer. However, on June 5, 2015, the OPEC countries did not discuss the issue of Indonesia’s return to the organisation. OPEC comprises 12 countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador and Angola. Mexico, Egypt, Oman and Russia, which participates in the organisation’s sessions since 1998, have the status of observer countries at OPEC. According to TASS previous reports, Russia will not with OPEC members on the eve of the summit in Vienna. The next expert-level meeting is planned for the middle of December this year. On Thursday, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said he expected no drastic decisions to be made at the upcoming OPEC meeting. "I do not expect any drastic changes to be adopted at the meeting. We don’t see any background for this," the minister said. At the same time, Novak said, the organisation should "stick to the quotas that exist." He added that the current quota set by the OPEC for its member-states stands at 30 mln barrels per day while virtually 31.5 mln barrels are produced. "If OPEC sticks to its quotas the market situation will calm down more quickly," the Minister said. When answering the question whether he himself plans to attend the OPEC meeting Novak said: "Russia is not an OPEC member-state so we don’t have to go there." The OPEC member-states will gather for a regular meeting on December 4 in Vienna for outlining its policy regarding production and export of crude oil for the upcoming year. Read more