Algeria’s energy minister was scheduled to meet his Saudi counterpart and OPEC’s secretary-general in Paris on Friday as part of moves toward clinching a global deal on stabilizing crude output to support oil prices, an Algerian official and OPEC sources said. Algeria will host the informal meeting with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih and OPEC’s Mohammed Barkindo, said the Algerian official, who asked not to be identified, Reuters reported. A source at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries confirmed the meeting as part of a push for an output deal, with producers battered by a glut-induced halving of oil prices over the past two years. “There is a strong move towards a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC to at least freeze production,” the source told Reuters. “It seems we are going in this direction. But if we are going to freeze, we have to use secondary sources to gauge production levels. We can’t allow each country to use a different method,” the source said. Tehran says it supports any measures to stabilize the market.
