Russia, Saudi Arabia and other major producers are scheduled to meet Sunday in Doha, Qatar, to weigh an agreement freezing their production at January or February levels.
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News sources reported that oil prices retreated on Wednesday as a rally fuelled by reports Saudi Arabia and Russian Federation had agreed to an output freeze petered out.
Brent crude was down 62 cents at $44.07 per barrel at 1439 GMT, while USA crude declined by 63 cents to $41.54.
The EIA cut its 2016 US oil production forecast to 8.6 million barrels a day from 8.67 million forecast in March, according to its Short-Term Energy Outlookon Tuesday.
“Forget about this topic”, Mr al-Naimi told the newspaper when asked about any possible reduction in his country’s crude output.
“Russia and Iran has a good potential to co-operate in oil and gas and I believe that Iran will take account of the situation in the world oil market because obviously you could get more money if there is less volume”, he said.
Crude oil prices closed Tuesday with posting best figures in five month.
“Key OPEC member Iran has been raising output since nuclear-linked Western sanctions were lifted in January and has signalled it will not join the freeze calls”.
ANALYST TAKE: “U.S stock markets are poised to open slightly higher on Tuesday as traders eye API inventory data and a few Fed speeches throughout the session”, said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.
A firmer US dollar.DXY, which makes dollar-denominated commodities more expensive for holders of other currencies and concerns over rising USA crude inventories also pressured prices.
The latest data indicate that demands for Iranian oil have soared, particularly from India and South Korea.
“Investors have been burned before that Opec (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) will do something – the fundamentals of this thought have shown to be made of sand”, said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at Sydney’s OptionsExpress. While the market was being driven higher on a global supply-demand rebalancing, the threat of record-high inventory levels and producers increasing output once prices rebound continued to loom.
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Official data from the US Energy Information Administration is due later on Wednesday. Still, the cartel said global production overall seemed to be falling faster than expected in response to the price collapse of the past two years, with big declines coming in China, the US and Europe.
