MW: Meeting for major oil producers to cap output set for April
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are planning to meet with Russian energy officials and other oil producers in Doha on April 17 to hash out an agreement to limit output, the Qatari oil ministry said Wednesday.
Talks have been going on for weeks to set up a meeting between OPEC members like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and big producers outside the group like Russia. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar had already agreed on Feb. 16 to limit their oil production to January levels, as long as other big producers like Iran follow suit.
A Qatari oil ministry news release called that agreement the “Doha initiative” and credited it with changing the sentiment of the oil market. Crude prices CLJ6, +2.86% LCOK6, +2.58% have rallied in recent weeks to nearly $40 a barrel since sinking to less than $27 a barrel in January, the lowest levels in more than a decade and down almost three quarters since June 2014.
