31st July, 2015
Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said that prices for oil would not significantly rise even if the cartel’s daily production quota is reduced by 2 million barrels from the current 30 million.
OPEC Secretary-General, Abdallah el-Badri, said the organisation did not plan to reduce the quota.
He made the comments after meeting with Russia’s energy minister in Moscow to discuss the influence of Iran increasing sales of oil following the removal of Western sanctions against that country.
El-Badri called the removal of such sanctions a great achievement.
Iran reached an agreement with the international community this month to remove sanctions imposed over concerns that its nuclear programme could be used for military purposes.
Russia’s economy has drastically suffered from relatively low prices for oil, which have roughly halved since mid-2014.
Russia’s Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, expressed optimism that oil prices would stabilise in 2016, with demand increasing by 7 to 10 per cent annually until about 2020 and then 15 to 20 per cent until about 2040.