The group, which produces a third of the world’s oil, will also have a formal gathering in Vienna at the end of November.
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According to the Petroleum Ministry, the 15th meeting of IEF will be held in Algerian capital from September 26-28.
“There have been signs in recent weeks that the sharp slowdown in the Saudi economy caused by fiscal austerity may have prompted the authorities to look at alternative solutions to deal with the collapse in oil prices”, analysts said in the report, obtained by Trend. Now, the Saudis are not only ready to limit their production but also reduce it if Iran agrees to freeze its output at August 2016 level. Three more sources confirmed the offer was presented to Tehran.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said last week OPEC members were close to striking an agreement but JPMorgan oil analyst Ben Ramsay predicted a breakthrough deal in Algiers remained unlikely.
This comes after they tumbled as much as 4 percent late Friday after Saudi Arabia said it doesn’t anticipate any decision on supply management at the meeting.
Oil prices remain far below the peaks of more than $100 a barrel in mid-2014.
Algeria is pushing for the cartel to cut production by around one million barrels per day (bpd).
“It’s hard to come to the conclusion that a freeze would be credible or doable”, said Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup in NY.
Prices have strengthened since lows at the start of the year and now stand at around $45 a barrel, within striking distance of the $50 to $60 range desired by some OPEC members.
Nigeria’s output reached 1.75 million barrels a day and will keep rising after government out-reach and a cease-fire with militants allowed some production to restart. Currently, the nation has managed to reach 3.8 million barrels a day, data obtained by Bloomberg shows.
The notion is also being backed by Adi Imsirovic, Teaching Fellow of University of Surrey’s School of Economics, who argued any cut in oil production would be hard to reach for a number of reasons.
Last week, oil futures fell sharply on Friday, paring weekly gains, as sentiment took a hit amid concerns that the upcoming meeting among major oil producers may not yield any action to reduce the global glut.
Two sources said Saudi Arabia’s Gulf OPEC allies the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait were expected to contribute to any output reduction.
Taking that a step further, it’s worth to considering the relationship between Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russian Federation in the big oil-demand battleground, China.
Oil prices rose modestly in Asia on Monday ahead of a producers’ meeting this week that might agree to cap supplies.
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“Let us reiterate that we still don’t expect that a fundamentals-driven rally will be strong enough to drive prices above $US50 per barrel until Q1 or Q2 of next year”, Credit Suisse said in a note.
