The meeting of the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers in Algiers later this month would be an informal meeting for consultations and not for decision making, said Mohammed Barkindo, the organization’s secretary-general.
“It will be an informal meeting, it is not a meeting for making decisions,” Barkindo said during a visit to Algiers, referring to an energy conference between Sept. 26 and Sept. 28, Reuters quoted the Algerian state news agency APS as saying.
“We met in June, it is September now and a lot of things happened between the two dates,” he added.
Algeria’s Minister of Energy and Mines Youcef Yousfi has also said there is a consensus among OPEC and non-OPEC producers about the need to stabilize the oil market to support prices.
His comments appeared to play down suggestions of a major decision at the Algiers meeting where Russia, Iran and other major oil producers were due to meet on the sidelines.
Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed this month to cooperate in oil markets, saying they could limit future output. That pushed up prices on the view in markets that the two top oil producers would be working together to tackle oversupply.
Several OPEC producers have called for an output freeze to rein in the glut, which arose as supplies from high-cost producers such as the United States soared. A price collapse in the last two years has hit the revenues of major producers.
OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, has also signaled willingness to cooperate as it faces such pressures.
But any deal between OPEC and outside producer Russia would be the first in 15 years. Moscow agreed to cut output in tandem with OPEC at the turn of the millennium, although Russia did not follow through on that promise.
