OPEC Secretary-General Mohamed Barkindo said they needed to continue working with other oil producers to manage the world's oil supply as oil demand faced headwinds. The historic agreement between Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers reached the end of 2016 need to be permanent.
Barkindo pointed out that there is no viable alternative but to institutionalize this cooperation between OPEC and new non-OPEC partners on a permanent basis. He said that the low prices affected the oil industry and deprived it of investment, leaving the continued cooperation between producers is the only way to preserve stability of markets.
The average price of crude oil is about $ 72 a barrel this year, and the International Energy Agency had warned last week that prices could rise above $ 80 a barrel unless producers make up for lost supply of OPEC members Iran and Venezuela.
A committee of OPEC and its allied producers is due to meet next week in Algeria to review compliance with their production targets. Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Russia is ready to increase production to record levels, while Saudi Arabia said it could produce 12 million barrels, as Iran's sales fell under U.S. sanctions and with Venezuela pumped half of its output in 2016, facing further declines under economic turmoil.
