Azerbaijan state energy company SOCAR supports proposals made by other oil producers to freeze oil production at January levels, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told ANS TV on Sunday. "SOCAR supports OPEC initiative to freeze oil production levels. Certain steps are already being made," he said in an interview, Reuters reported. OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia, the world's two largest oil exporters, agreed last month to freeze output at January levels to prop up prices if other nations agreed to join the first global oil pact in 15 years. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday the ex-Soviet oil producers Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan would join talks with OPEC about stabilizing oil markets. Production in Azerbaijan, the third-largest oil producer among ex-Soviet countries, declined by 2.8% year-on-year to 3.5 million tons in January 2016. Novak also said a meeting between OPEC and other leading oil producers over an output freeze could take place between March 20 and April 1 in Moscow, Vienna or Doha.
