OPEC leaders will not leave informal meeting 'empty-handed'

Oil prices rose slightly Monday morning following hopes that a consensus can be reached on oil production, following this summer's huge oil production.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

26 September, 2016

The Algerian minister warned the economy was in a 'more critical state' now than June[Getty]

OPEC countries are looking for new ways to deal with the economic effects of the “oil-glut”, as ministers meet on the sideline of the International Energy Forum in Algiers on Monday.

Many investors hope that an agreement can be reached on oil production levels at an informal OPEC meeting today as oil prices rallied slightly this morning.

The Algerian Energy Minister, Noureddine Bouterfa, told reporters on Sunday they “would not come out of the meeting empty-handed”, as there was still a chance of consensus.

Bouterfa said the economy was in a “much more critical” state now than when OPEC met in Austria in June.

Oil prices fell 4 percent on Friday, as Iran and Saudi Arabia failed to agree on plans to slow production levels. Saudi Arabia had offered to cut its output to January levels, if Iran agreed to the same.

While announcing the meeting last Tuesday, Bouterfa said: “The question is at what level we would freeze or reduce output -w e need to find the good compromise in order not to destabilise the market.

“It’s necessary at least to reduce by one million barrels a day to re-balance the market.”

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the Saudi central bank, announced a cash injection of $5.3 billion to local banks as part of a “supportive monetary policy” to combat the recessionary effects of low oil prices.

Saudi Aramco CEO, Amin Nasser, told reporters on Monday, the country’s state-owned oil producer is still considering floating on several foreign exchanges in 2018 of a part of the state-owned oil.

Agencies contributed to this story