United States benchmark contract, West Texas Intermediate, was down 1.6 percent at 30.91 dollars per barrel.
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After the committee was unable to draw a consensus at the December meeting most ministers expected oil prices to fall, Kachikwu said. Members are already engaged in informal discussions with some non-OPEC producers, including Russian Federation, to join any future production cut to shore up prices, he said.
Saudi-led Gulf exporters within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have so far refused to cut production to curb sliding prices, seeking to protect their market share despite a heavy blow to their revenues.
REUTERS/Heinz-Peter BaderNigeria’s Oil Minister and OPEC president Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu addresses a news conference after a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, December 4, 2015.
“One group feels there is a need to intervene”.
European benchmark Brent North Sea crude for February delivery dropped $1.61 to $31.55 a barrel, a low last seen in April 2004.
OPEC can not change policy because of the oil prices being low since the strategy of the group is working and there was not any major reduction in the annual increase from non-OPEC members, said the energy minister from the UAE Suhail Al Mazrouei.
Volatile trading in oil has prompted calls for an emergency meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. High-cost shale oil producers are demonstrating resilience to the current prices and “are becoming a constant equation in the oil dynamics”, he said.
The cartel is not supposed to meet until June, but member nations are growing frustrated with Saudi Arabia.
Traders and analysts said ballooning oversupply and China’s slowing economy were the main reasons for the oil price rout, which has pulled prices down by over 70 percent since mid-2014.
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The rise in the greenback, which makes dollar-priced oil more expensive for holders of weaker currencies, has dented prices as well.
