Russia hopes for agreement on production freeze, Putin says
By Nigar Abbasova
Russia hopes for an agreement on an oil output freeze and believes that it would be a right decision for the global oil market, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Bloomberg.
"It would be right to find a compromise in terms of economic reasonability and logics. We think it is the right decision for global energy markets," he said.
Speculation over the oil production freeze in the upcoming Algeria meeting, where OPEC and non-OPEC states are due to meet informally, still remains one of the most influential factors in the “black gold” market.
Putin said that oil producers recognize that Iran, which has mostly restored the output, halted during three years of trade restrictions and sanctions imposed on it, deserves to complete its return to world markets.
“Iran is starting from a very low position, connected with the well-known sanctions in relation to this country. It would be unfair to leave it on this sanctioned level,” he said.
However, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak earlier said that the country sees no grounds for new talks on freezing oil production, but open to negotiations
The issue of possible production freeze was also tossed around before the Doha meeting, where participants failed to reach any agreement. Most experts say there is still a lot of uncertainty in connection with the production freeze.
The Russian government’s preliminary target for 2017 ranges 10.5 million barrels per day to 11 mbd, depending on the market.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc earlier forecasted that oil output would exceed the former Soviet record of 11.42 mbd set almost 30 years ago by the end of 2018. Production was forecasted to climb by 590,000 barrels a day over the next three years to 11.65 million barrels a day.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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