OPEC to Conduct Talks in September

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will have informal talks at an energy gathering in September, the group’s president said on Monday, as oil-producing countries worry about a recent decline in the crude market.

According Qatar’s energy minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, who is serving as the oil cartel’s president in 2016, said that OPEC is continually discussing ways to balance the market.

“OPEC continues to monitor developments closely, and is in constant deliberations with all member states on ways and means to help restore stability and order to the oil market,” Sada stated.

A casual gathering of OPEC member countries is set to take place on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Algeria from September 26-28. The cartel had its most recent meeting in Vienna last June, and most of its members assembled in April for futile discussions on limiting output.

Sada left a positive note regarding crude oil market, claiming that demand was projected to be robust in the second half of this year, while the global supply of petroleum would drop.

“Expectation of higher crude oil demand in the third and fourth quarters of 2016, coupled with a decrease in availability, is leading the analysts to conclude that the current bear market is only temporary and oil price would increase during the later part of 2016,” he said.

Most OPEC members want to rekindle the idea of setting new limits on oil output this fall as Iran gets back much of the energy industry lost during the years of Western sanctions.

Oil Production Freeze

The countries, which include Venezuela, Ecuador and Kuwait, want to take another attempt at cooperation with non-OPEC members such as Russia.

A similar initiative faded in April during talks in Doha, Qatar, when Saudi Arabia backed out over Iran’s rejection to join in so-called production freeze until it had achieved pre-sanctions levels of oil production. Under the condition, countries would have agreed to restrict their production to particular levels in a bid to boost oil prices by limiting the amount of crude on the market.

The price of Brent crude, which sets the global crude benchmark, climbed 1.4 percent at $44.91 a barrel Monday, lower than this year’s high of near $53 a barrel in June.

The production freeze was a concept that helped send prices rallying over 50 percent from 12-year lows last winter.

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