AFP, Vienna :
Oil producer nations agreed Thursday to keep a lid on output for all of next year, despite Russia starting to get cold feet and tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
Twenty-four countries decided to maintain production curbs of 1.8 million barrels per day until December 31, 2018, the energy minister of OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia said.
“I am please to announce that the decision has been unanimous. It’s a solid decision… which is to roll over and extend the deal through the end of December 2018,” Khaled al-Falih told a news conference in Vienna.
The agreement among the 14 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and 10 others including Russia was first struck a year ago and was already extended once until March 31, 2018.
The aim is to reduce a global excess in supply that has pushed oil prices lower and left a huge hole in the finances of producer nations, despite making life easier for buyers of crude.
So far, it has worked, helping oil prices climb from less than $30 in early 2016 to around $60 now and reducing bloated inventories to more normal levels.
On Thursday oil prices dipped, however, giving back some of their recent gains, with Brent Crude off 23 cents at $62.30 and fellow benchmark West Texas Intermediate down 26 cents at $57.04.
The situation has been helped by improved economic conditions, notably in energy-hungry China, that have boosting demand for crude.
Higher prices have been of little help to OPEC member Venezuela, however, teetering on the brink of a full-blown debt default.
Manuel Quevedo, the general newly installed as Venezuela’s oil minister in Vienna, put the country’s dire production problems down to “sabotage”.
Oil producer nations agreed Thursday to keep a lid on output for all of next year, despite Russia starting to get cold feet and tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
Twenty-four countries decided to maintain production curbs of 1.8 million barrels per day until December 31, 2018, the energy minister of OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia said.
“I am please to announce that the decision has been unanimous. It’s a solid decision… which is to roll over and extend the deal through the end of December 2018,” Khaled al-Falih told a news conference in Vienna.
The agreement among the 14 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and 10 others including Russia was first struck a year ago and was already extended once until March 31, 2018.
The aim is to reduce a global excess in supply that has pushed oil prices lower and left a huge hole in the finances of producer nations, despite making life easier for buyers of crude.
So far, it has worked, helping oil prices climb from less than $30 in early 2016 to around $60 now and reducing bloated inventories to more normal levels.
On Thursday oil prices dipped, however, giving back some of their recent gains, with Brent Crude off 23 cents at $62.30 and fellow benchmark West Texas Intermediate down 26 cents at $57.04.
The situation has been helped by improved economic conditions, notably in energy-hungry China, that have boosting demand for crude.
Higher prices have been of little help to OPEC member Venezuela, however, teetering on the brink of a full-blown debt default.
Manuel Quevedo, the general newly installed as Venezuela’s oil minister in Vienna, put the country’s dire production problems down to “sabotage”.
