Telesur.png Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela Agree to Freeze Oil Production Telesur, Venezuela, 16 February 2016 Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela are trying to boost the price of oil. The world's top oil exporters have agreed to freeze output at January levels if other major exporters join the pact. The oil ministers of Russia and Venezuela attended a meeting in the Qatari capital Tuesday, along with Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi, who said the group's next steps would be assessed over the coming months. "The reason we agreed to a potential freeze of production is simple: it is the beginning of a process which we will assess in the next few months and decide if we need other steps to stabilize and improve the market," Naimi told reporters. The price of oil began falling in mid-2014 as surging output from OPEC, Russia and U.S. shale producers outpaced demand. In Russia, the world's biggest producer, the rouble hit an all-time low last month while in Venezuela and Azerbaijan low prices have taken a severe toll on local economies and import ability. However, oil prices rebounded on Tuesday with Brent breaking past US$34 a barrel on expectations that energy heavyweights Russia and Saudi Arabia would take measures to curb the current global oversupply of petroleum. The announcement marks a major reversal for Saudi Arabia, which has consistently rejected calls to cut production, a policy that has been a major driver behind the collapse of oil prices from as high as US$115 18 months ago to as low as US$27 a barrel earlier this month. Meanwhile, the announcement comes following the recent lifting of sanctions on Iran in line with a nuclear agreement, which is expected to provide the biggest increase in supply of 2016. The world is now producing 1.5 million barrels a day more than it is consuming, and Iran is promising to add one million barrels per day to supply over the next 12 months. From: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Saudi-Arabia-Russia-Venezuela-Agree-to -Freeze-Oil-Production-20160216-0008.html -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
