Translated material
Bloomberg: OPEC finally refused to freeze oil production
After the meeting of ministers of the oil exporting countries in Doha ended without concluding an agreement to freeze oil production, OPEC members refused to freeze and decided to concentrate on demand and proposal. About this Bloomberg told the sources in the cartel.
According to journalists, on Wednesday, during a private meeting in Vienna, representatives of OPEC discussed the improvement of the main indicators of supply and demand. Two representatives of the states who supported the "freezing" of oil production last month confirmed the agency that, due to changes in the market, the idea of frost -free oil is more irrelevant.
At the same time, OPEC has yet to answer the request of Venezuela, which initiated an invitation to the upcoming June summit of the participants in the last meeting on freezing.
This week, we note, it became known that the countries included in OPEC, according to the results of April, increased oil production by an average of 1.5% per day.
In April, after the failure of negotiations on the freezing of oil production, Minister of Oil Katar Muhammad al-Sad said that the situation in the oil market improved compared to February, when Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar made the initiative to freeze production.
As-Sada also expressed the hope that oil prices would respond to fundamental factors, and not to the results of the meeting. "The fundamental factors of the market are improving, and this trend is associated with a decrease in non -traditional oil production and reduction of investments," he added.
Oil Minister Nigeria Ibe Kachkava previously said that the next meeting in the same format could take place closer to summer. "Probably, we will continue consultations in June in Vienna. I think that OPEC should first solve its internal problems. The meeting in Vienna will first be held with the participation of OPEC countries, and then other manufacturers will join it," he said.
The question of whether the political confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran was the reason for the failure of the negotiations was left without comment. At the same time, he emphasized that the future of OPEC is in making decisions on the principle of most votes, and not unanimously.
A few days later, the chairman of the Mejlis (lower house of parliament) of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Laridjani said that his country invites the initiators to “freeze” the volumes of oil production to be the first to take such a step in relation to OPECs. “Let the initiators of freezing of volumes froze their quota,” he pointed out. “They cannot ignore the previous rules.”
“Those countries that offer this step, and must be the first to freeze their quota for prey, and not remember that our quota was 2 million barrels per day,” Laridzhani emphasized. “We are determined to choose our quota, and if we want to make decisions together in the OPEC, we can’t put pressure on Iran first, and then, in the conditions of pressure, say:“ Fuck our prey. ”
Representatives of Iran did not previously hide that they were ready to consider the decision to freeze oil production only after they reach the dosanction indicators of 4 million barrels per day.
The head of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, Alexander Novak, later said that the document on frost was indeed prepared and agreed, but before the start of the meeting, some exporting countries changed their position.
It also turned out that the failure of the negotiations was contributed by the Saudi Prince Muhammad Ben Salman, who pushed the minister of oil into the background. A few hours before the meeting, he called the delegates of Saudi Arabia and ordered them to return home.
The delegates did not leave, but after that the negotiations were doomed. Now Prince Muhammad will try to give a new scope to the efforts of Saudi Arabia aimed at maintaining a share in the oil market. In addition, the kingdom has adopted an ambitious program for getting rid of oil dependence.