Top oil producers agree to freeze production

By Mohammed Farid Mahmoud Abdullah and Zeynep Hilal Karyagdi

DOHA, Qatar

The top four global oil producers agreed to freeze individual outputs at January levels, provided that other major producers implement it as well, Mohammed Saleh Al Sada, Qatari energy and industry minister, said Tuesday.

According to the minister's announcement in Doha, where a meeting between Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russia took place, the four countries will apply the decision based on production levels as of Jan. 11.

Sada also emphasized that the decision will provide stability in oil prices which have been fluctuating since January 2014. The oil price saw extremes from losses of almost 70 percent from $115 per barrel to $30 per barrel.

Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabian minister of petroleum and mineral resources, said the decision to freeze oil producers’ output will be adequate to improve the oil market.

However, he urged that the four top oil producers take other steps to reach oil price stability, similar to Tuesday's collective decision.

Meanwhile, the price of the global oil benchmark Brent has risen above $35 per barrel from $32 while WTI saw a rise at $30.98 on Tuesday from $28 on Monday, according to official data.

Saudi Arabia's production in January was 10 million barrels, while OPEC's production was 32.33 million barrels. In addition, Russian production is expected to be 10.7 million for the first quarter of 2016, according to OPEC's latest report.