Doubts prevail in energy market
By Nigar Abbasova
The world energy market is in anticipation of the upcoming Vienna meeting of OPEC, while skepticism about the possibility of consensus intensifies due to a number of non-supportive signs.
The position of Russia, one of the main players in the energy market, on the issue of oil reductions is still vague. An informed source told Reuters that the Russian side didn’t support the offer of Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf oil-producers on the joint cut in output by 4 percent.
Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak earlier met with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf oil-producers to discuss steps to stabilize the market and restore a balance.
OPEC is seeking to attract the producers outside the cartel to join the plan and puts efforts to win cooperation from Russia, one of the major suppliers outside the group, in limiting output to prop up prices.
The source informed that Russia expressed its readiness to keep the output at the current level, but did not agree to cuts.
The first meeting of the special committee of the cartel on the realization of the preliminary Algeria deal is scheduled for October 28-29. The issue of 4 percent reduction is expected to be brought for discussions during the meeting.
A possible deal is further undermined by the unwillingness of Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest producer after Saudi Arabia, to join any deal of the 14-member cartel to cut output. Although it has not been officially communicated, a basic general understanding is that only conflict-torn Libya and Nigeria, as well as Iran, would be treated as an exception, while others are expected to bear cuts.
Iraq, however, also demonstrates resistance to contributing to the cuts, bringing the fact that it is embroiled in a war with the IS militants.
However, Saudi Arabia and its OPEC allies are not expected to provide exceptions for the country, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the volume of September output in Iraq stood at about 335,000 barrels per day, more than OPEC’s estimated figure for the month. In addition, Iran also claims its oil production last month was 3.89 million barrels per day mbd, while OPEC's figure for Iran was 3.665 mbd.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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