Report: Venezuela says Russia to join OPEC talks on output cut deal

MOSCOW, Oct 6 (PRIME) -- OPEC members will meet next week for talks on implementing an output cut deal, with Russia joining to discuss how producers from outside the group can participate in the plan, according to Venezuela’s oil minister, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

Ministers from OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Gabon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will attend the meeting in Istanbul, along with Alexander Novak from non-OPEC member Russia, Eulogio Del Pino said in a government statement late on Wednesday.

OPEC is in the process of ironing out the details of the pact announced last week in Algiers that would trim output to a range of 32.5 million to 33 million barrels a day. The deal exempts Iran, which is emerging from international sanctions. Nigeria has also said it won’t have to comply and Libya is unlikely to be asked to because its oil production is a fraction of what it should be. The deal will be finalized when the group meets at the end of next month in Vienna.

Del Pino said in a statement a day earlier that an agreement among OPEC and non-OPEC states to limit oil production could slash global supply by 1.2 million barrels a day and add as much as U.S. $15 a barrel to prices.

Most of the oil ministers are scheduled to attend the 23rd World Energy Congress on Sunday through October 13 in Istanbul. Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Boutarfa said in an interview with Ennahar TV that they were planning to meet next week, Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday. The Ennahar report is scheduled for broadcast Thursday, Reuters said.

Separately on Wednesday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on state television that he plans to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for bilateral talks “very soon,” without saying where that would take place.

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