OPEC meet fails to decide on oil production freeze
The top most oil producing countries have failed to decide on production freeze during the OPEC meeting in Doha, Qatar on Sunday. This is a precedent to the two failed meetings in December 2015 and February this year to cap the crude oil prices, which have risen from $26 per barrel in February to above $40 on expectations that the OPEC countries could come to a consensus.
The ongoing tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a key reason for the failure of OPEC countries to sign an agreement or freeze output at January levels. Iran has decided not to attend the OPEC meeting, and continued producing oil until it regains the market share after following the lifting of the international sanctions in January. Saudi Arabia declared not to freeze production unless other oil producers do the same.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi declined to comment on this, while Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed Saleh al-Sada said that consultations would continue between the parties until an OPEC meeting in June. The OPEC members will consult with all the oil producers in the world until June 2, when the next bi-annual OPEC meeting is scheduled at Vienna, Austria.
“One reason the deal could not be reached was that not all OPEC members were present. Until this morning we thought there would be a deal. We didn't know Iran wasn't coming," Oman's Oil Minister Mohammed al-Rumhy said.
Iran Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said, “It didn't make sense to send any representative from the Islamic Republic as we are not part of the decision to freeze output. We can't cooperate with them to freeze our own output, and in other words impose sanctions on ourselves.”
Currently Iran produces 3.2 million barrels of oil per day, expects to increase its production to 4 million by April 2017. Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela are part of the OPEC and Qatar's government holds the OPEC presidency.
to success.