OPEC meets non-OPEC nations after talks to curb oil output failed

Officials from OPEC and non-member oil producing countries met on Saturday aiming to build support for an OPEC plan to reduce output.

The meeting is coming just a day after OPEC members were unable to agree on how to implement the reduction deal.

Arriving for the meeting with OPEC’s High Level Committee of exporters, only the representative of non-OPEC Azerbaijan made comments supportive of the need for producer action to help prop up prices.

“Today we will discuss the recognised positions of countries, first of all the OPEC countries,” Azerbaijan’s energy minister Natig Aliyev told reporters outside OPEC’s headquarters.

“Just one week ago we met with the president of Venezuela,” he added, in reference to the south American OPEC member which has been pushing for measures to support prices.

“Venezuela and Azerbaijan agree that some measures will be taken to stabilise the market. We agreed the price of oil can be around $60 per barrel.”

Oil is trading closer to $50 a barrel, less than half its price of mid-2014, weighed down by persistent oversupply and squeezing the incomes of exporting nations.

Other non-OPEC officials did not mention joint producer action.

One day earlier, OPEC officials meeting in Vienna to work out the details of their plan to reduce oil production.

They, however, failed to reach agreement after hours of talks on Friday, amid objections by Iran which has been reluctant to even freeze its output.

The High Level Committee of experts will meet again in Vienna on Nov. 25 ahead of the next meeting of OPEC ministers on Nov. 30, to “finalise individual quotas”, one source said.

They will also meet as scheduled on Saturday with representatives of non-OPEC producers, which OPEC wants help from in curbing supplies.

“Yes, we continue tomorrow with non-OPEC,” one of the sources said. “(There was) no complete agreement today since Iran refuses to freeze production.”

“We didn’t finish all. We are looking to the next meeting on November 25 to finalise individual quotas,” another source said.

The meeting of the High Level Committee is comprised mainly of OPEC governors and national representatives – officials who report to their respective ministers.

Talks lasted just over 11 hours on Friday with Iran appearing to be the main sticking point.

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