São Paulo – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia and Venezuela have decided this Tuesday (16) to freeze oil production at January levels in a bid to stabilize the commodity’s international prices. The announcement was made at a press conference in Doha by the Qatari Energy and Mines minister and Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opep) alternate president Mohammed Saleh Al Sada.<\/p>\n
Sada said the freeze is meant to stabilize the oil market. He also said that hopefully, other oil-producing countries, Opec members and otherwise, will follow suit, and that he will lead talks to persuade nations including ran and Iraq to follow suit.<\/p>\n
"We don’t want significant gyrations in prices, we want to meet demand. We want a stable oil price," said Saudi Petroleum and Mineral Resources minister Ali al Naimi, who also spoke at the press conference, as did Venezuela’s Petroleum minister Eulogio del Pino and Russia’s Energy minister Alexander Novak.<\/p>\n
Prices began plummeting about a year and a half ago as a result of soaring supplies. Growing availability on global markets, stemming from increasing shale production in the United States and weaker global demand, helped drive prices down. As a result, major producing countries stepped up their outputs to try and render US production unviable, since its cost is higher.<\/p>\n
In February 2014, Brent oil went over USD 110 per barrel. Its price has been falling ever since and reached USD 28.44 last Monday (15), according to Opec numbers. As of November 30, 2015, the Brent barrel was selling for USD 38.93. <\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n