Decision making in OPEC now complicated – Russian Minister

Russia’s Energy Minister, Alexander Novak has said that decision-making within the OPEC has become more complicated since the cartel has taken no action to regulate the global oil market. Novak, in remarks at an energy forum on Wednesday, said he had witnessed disagreement among OPEC members during the Doha meeting on the proposed oil output freeze last weekend. After the gridlock meeting on Sunday, OPEC side lined the likes of U. S, Russia and plans to resume the freeze-talk. Iraq’s governor to OPEC, Falah Al-Amri said on his Facebook page, that discussions will resume at OPEC’s next general meeting in June to reach an agreement on freezing oil output.

His statement came just days after politics thwarted a deal to cap production and curb the global glut. No deal will be possible without a change in “political positions,” he said. Negotiations among 16 oil producers on Sunday, ended without any accord after Saudi Arabia demanded all producers take part in a freeze. Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran decided not to take part in the talks because it wants to restore exports which had been curbed by international sanctions. “If there is no change in the political positions, an agreement cannot be reached,” Al-Amri said. “Prices will continue on a downward trend, especially if some producing countries continue to increase their output to cause an imbalance in crude supply and demand.” Crude prices dropped on Monday after the failed talks and have since rebounded as oil workers in Kuwait continued a strike for a third day, cutting production. Iraq, OPEC’s largest producer after Saudi Arabia, supported an agreement reached in February between Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar to cap output at January levels. It pumped a record 4.55 million barrels a day in March.