Energy minister: Russia sees need in freezing oil output till 2017

MOSCOW, Mar 17 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Energy Ministry believes that oil output must be retained at the January’s level for the rest of 2016, Minister Alexander Novak told reporters late Wednesday.

“We assumed at least six months in order to monitor whether the mechanism works. And then to gather and discuss what to do next. There is no precise timeline. We will discuss the terms in April (at a meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers). I think that it would be desirable (to freeze oil output) until the end of the year,” Novak said.

He said that an agreement to be made at the meeting slated for April 17 will bring the oil market’s supply and demand in balance until late 2016 or early 2017, while if no agreement is made, the market can regulate itself only in late 2017.

In February, Novak preliminarily agreed to freeze oil output with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela. Some other countries joined the initiative, while the U.S. and Iran refused to participate.

According to Novak, more than 15 countries will participate in the Doha meeting.

“Our position is that we could and we support such an approach to the issue – to treat the proposal of our Iranian colleagues individually taking into consideration the unique circumstances and the fact that sanctions on oil supplies were removed in January,” Novak said.

He said that the position of the rest of the countries regarding Iran will become clear after the Doha meeting.

Novak also said that Russia now complies with the oil output restrictions. “By today, we do not exceed the amount of output seen in January, it is 0.1% lower than in January.”

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