OPEC will soon make efforts to convene before the next scheduled meeting in June, as the slump in oil prices is hurting producers, including the world’s biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia, said Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources.
"The 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will work toward meeting in early March," Emmanuel Kachikwu said in an interview in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.
Kachikwu said members are already engaged in informal discussions with some non-OPEC producers, including Russia, to join any future production cut to shore up prices.
“We are definitely looking at a timeframe in very early March. You will very necessarily have to have an OPEC meeting” because the group first has to meet and decide on its position before having formal meetings with other producers to coordinate a cut, he said.
Benchmark Brent crude closed at $43 a barrel on the day of the last OPEC meeting on Dec. 4 and was trading at $30.98 a barrel at 9:12 am on Tuesday in London.
OPEC, which supplies about 40% of the world’s oil, effectively abandoned output limits in December, potentially worsening a glut created after producers from the US to Russia and Saudi Arabia pumped more than demand warranted.
"No OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia, are happy with the slide in prices since the group’s last meeting in December," Kachikwu said earlier at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
He didn’t wish to name the member countries seeking an early meeting and said that in December, Saudi Arabia was supportive of such a meeting, if there was consensus for it.
Kachikwu said that after the lack of consensus at the December meeting, OPEC ministers knew oil prices would fall.
High-cost shale oil producers are showing resilience to low prices and “are becoming a constant equation in the oil dynamics,” he said.
“I certainly hope that it does not go below $30 for the sake and survival of everybody. My perception is that we will see it get worse before it gets better. Oil is seen ending the year at $40 to $50 a barrel."
