H E Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry and President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak attend a press conference during the 23rd World Energy Congress in I
DOHA/ISTANBUL: HE Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry and President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), has said the Opec was inviting Russia and other key non-members to a meeting later this month as the oil cartel and Moscow seek to tighten cooperation to boost historically low crude prices.
Al Sada, who is also the current president of Opec, was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing World Energy Congress in Istanbul. The announcement came after a meeting in Istanbul between several top Opec energy ministers with their Russian counterpart Alexander Novak aimed at advancing joint efforts to bolster oil prices that have hurt the economies of crude producers, agencies reported.
“We agreed to have a technical meeting of Opec... on 28-29 of this month (October). An invitation is going to be sent to some key non-Opec countries,” Al Sada said after the talks.
“This meeting is meant to give a better understanding of the best way of how to move towards the rebalancing of the market to the interest of all -- not only producers and exporters but also the world economy,” AFP quoted Al Sada as saying. Other than Russia, he did not elaborate on what other non-Opec countries were being invited to the meeting but indicated he wanted a wide turnout.
“We have a list of non-Opec countries and we are yet to refine it further. We intend to expand it get the feelings of as many non-Opec countries as possible.”
“An informal meeting between Opec energy ministers, Russia and Mexico in Istanbul yesterday yielded positive results and a wide spectrum of producers will attend a high-level meeting in Vienna at the end of this month”, Reuters reported quoting Al Sada. There had been a “positive understanding of the situation on what could be the role of Opec and what could be the role of non-Opec” in balancing the oil market, Al Sada said.
The prospect of Russia, one of the world’s top two oil producers alongside Saudi Arabia, coordinating policy with Opec has boosted global oil markets in the last few days and briefly brought crude to its highest levels for a year.
Novak praised the discussions in Istanbul as “constructive” and discussed also “mechanisms” of cooperation between Opec and non-Opec countries.
