Novak said that Moscow will watch the positions of OPEC member countries and see “whether they are able to reach agreement between themselves that they all must take part in the freeze of oil production”.
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Instead, however, Saudi Arabia pushed to include Iran in any freeze agreement.
Political tensions between Sunni majority Saudi Arabia and Shia majority Iran may have also doomed the deal as both countries continue to fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. “As soon as Iran shunned the meeting by not sending its oil minister it was an un-done deal”, he said. The contract traded in NY was down $1.14, or 2.8 percent, at $39.22 on Monday while the global standard, Brent, fell $1.04, or 2.4 percent, to $42.28, the AP reported.
“Will be looking for stocks to fall across the globe on Monday, yields on sovereign debt to decline, and emerging and commodity market currencies to tumble”. OPEC is set to meet again in June.
A meeting of the world’s leading oil exporters to discuss capping production has ended without agreement, BBC News reports.
Some 18 countries, including non-OPEC Russia, gathered in the Qatari capital of Doha for what was expected to be the rubber-stamping of a deal – in the making since February – to stabilise output at January levels until October 2016.
The Russian Energy Ministry says it’s ready to increase oil production and exports should Saudi Arabia go through with its threat to boost output after the failure of the Doha talks. To the same effect, he said, they have been trying to keep the prices of oil at low levels by producing extra supplies of oil over the past years beyond the market demand.
Why did the talks fail?
But Reuters quoted sources saying that Saudi Arabia wanted all Opec members to attend talks, despite insisting earlier on excluding Iran, its political rival in the region, because Tehran had refused to freeze production.
“Revived hope about the big freeze has traders covering their shorts”, said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
The oil workers’ strike in Kuwait has considerably affected oil inventories for a few days. “It promises to be the final nail in the coffin for those shale producers and their lenders hanging on for a short-term price reprieve”.
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“We believe that the weekend headlines will further support the already high level of price volatility”, added Goldman Sachs in a research note.
