Algiers: OPEC will consider further cuts to oil production if prices continue to fall, Algerian Energy and Mining minister Chakib Khelil said on Saturday.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are set to meet in Vienna in March and Khelil said another reduction in output remained a possibility.
“If there is a downward trend at the time of our meeting on 15 March, I am sure that everyone would agree on implementing another reduction in oil output to stabilise prices then increase it later,” Khelil said.
He said he expected the prices to stabilise at around $45-46 before “increasing during the third quarter of the year”.
OPEC decided 17 December to cut production to 2.2 million barrels a day in a bid to halt the slide in oil prices.
Since September, OPEC has cut a total of 4.2 million barrels per day from its production to modify the fall in crude oil prices, which have plummeted by about $100 per barrel since their record high of $147.50 in July.
