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Oil prices rise as Saudi Arabian official says agreement near to cut production Low world oil prices have taken an especially heavy toll on the Gulf countries that depend heavily on petroleum revenues by The Associated Press
The world’s oil producers are close to an agreement to cut production to shore up prices, a Saudi official said March 9. The comments in advance of an OPEC meeting helped push up oil prices.
There is an agreement that will be reached between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC members before the Vienna meeting on March 23, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The comments came after the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar met in the Rubal Khaly desert for the official opening of the Shaiba oil field nearly 600 miles southeast of the capital Riyadh.
The official refused to provide details of a proposed production agreement. But a statement issued after the ministers’ meeting said Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar will work “in intensive consultation with OPEC members and outside it to take all the necessary measures” to bring about a production cut. Cutting production most important issue The most important measures will be to deal with “cutting production in quantities to be reckoned with, that will ensure the withdrawal of excess supply from the market which will lead to a rise in prices,” the statement said. It did not elaborate.
After the meeting, North Sea Brent Blend crude oil for April delivery was up 48 cents at $12.04 a barrel in afternoon trading in London.
A glut of oil on world markets, a result of overproduction and reduced demand in the wake of financial crises around the globe, had depressed petroleum prices on world markets.
In the United States, average retail gasoline prices in February were at an all-time low, when adjusted for inflation. Prices edged up less than half a cent in the latest Lundberg Survey, the first increase since September, to nudge back above $1 a gallon.
But while falling prices have helped consumers, the ministers said the large supplies of oil and the drop in crude oil prices to 20-year lows threaten to curb oil development and investment, something that could endanger future supplies.
Low world oil prices have taken an especially heavy toll on the Gulf countries that depend heavily on petroleum revenues.
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