Min: OPEC to hold oil freeze meeting with Russia mid-March

MEXICO CITY/ HOUSTON/WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (PRIME) -- OPEC members will meet with representatives of large non-OPEC oil producers, including Russia, in mid-March, Oil and Mining Minister of Venezuela Eulogio del Pino said in his Twitter blog on Monday.

“An extended meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers who support a freeze of oil output can be held in mid-March,” del Pino said.

Last week, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak agreed to keep oil output at January levels on average in 2016 with officials of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela.

OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri said that the cartel is in negotiations with all oil producing countries except the U.S. and is calling on Washington to start a dialogue on production growth curbs.

He said that the U.S. can fill the gap resulting from OPEC oil output reduction, “I don’t know how we are going to live together,” el-Badri said referring to the U.S. shale industry. “Any increase in shale oil will come immediately and cover any reduction.”

Amos Hochstein, a U.S. State Department special envoy for international energy affairs, said that Washington is skeptical about the idea of output freeze. "I am highly skeptical about this freeze idea. I think the Iranians today said that they would not go along with it, so I think that idea is gone away."

Oman and Nigeria have agreed to cap their output, oil and energy ministers of the two states respectively Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhi and Emmanuel Kachikwu said.

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