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Algeria backs freezing oil production to increase prices

Xinhua, March 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Algerian Energy Minister Salah Khebri warned Monday that the persistently low oil prices would affect the economies of oil-revenue dependent nations.

He urged the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to freeze oil output for three or four months in a bid to rebalance the market.

"Algeria welcomes every effort aiming to restore the oil market's balance, including the possibility of freezing production for three or four months amid oversupply and global oil reserves," Khebri told national radio.

"The global market has an output surplus of 3 million oil barrels per day," he added.

The official stressed that "Algeria supports the proposed freezing of oil output for three or four months, preliminarily, during OPEC's March meeting."

Three OPEC member states, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela, as well as non-OPEC producing Russia, agreed on a proposal to freeze oil output On Feb. 16, as of January, subject to approval by oil producing countries inside and outside OPEC.

Dominant OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia, refused to cut oil production individually, for fear of losing market shares. Algeria produces 1.2 million oil barrels a day.

The decision led to oversupply with ongoing low prices, down from 115 U.S. dollars in July 2014, to under 30 dollars a barrel last month. Endit