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UAE energy minister says situation on oil market will stabilize soon

The minister noted that the situation would normalize quite soon if oil producers try to adjust their market supply to the necessity of reaching a market balance

© EPA/SHELL/HANDOUT

ABY DHABI, December 21. /TASS/. The situation on the global oil market will stabilize soon, Energy Minister of the United Arab Emirates Suhail al-Mazrui said on Sunday at the tenth Arab Energy Conference.

He noted that the dramatic fall in oil prices had impacted the economic situation of Arab oil producing countries and called to pool efforts to work out measures aiming to stabilize the energy market and this way consolidate positions of the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) states on the global oil market.

He said the OAPEC fully supported OPEC’s decision to give some time to the oil market to stabilize. The minister noted that the situation would normalize quite soon if oil producers try to adjust their market supply to the necessity of reaching a market balance.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi said he was sure the oil market would ultimately begin to grow. He once again confirmed that his country was not planning to decrease oil production and would keep its quota, like other OPEC members. He blamed the dramatic drop in oil prices on those oil producing countries that were not members of the OPEC. He said Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries were trying to stabilize the market while non-OPEC oil producing countries had been unwilling to cooperate, which finally ended up in a fall in oil prices.

After a meeting on November 27 in Vienna, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to keep a daily oil [production quota of 30 million barrels, which sent oil prices further down.

Headquartered in Vienna, OPEC includes 12 countries, namely Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, and Angola. Russia, Mexico, Egypt and Oman are observers at the OPEC.

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