Iraq has raised expectations that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) could reach an agreement on limiting crude oil output when it meets next week in Algeria.
The 14-member group, responsible for a third of the world’s oil production, could discuss limiting production at an informal meeting in the Algerian capital on September 28.
Few have thought any substantial deal could be reached, however, Iraq’s governor to the group said Thursday that it is the “right time” for an agreement.
“They have to do something,” Falah Al Amri, who is also the director general of Iraq’s Oil Marketing Co, known as SOMO, said an energy conference in FujairaFalah Al Amrih. “They have to do something.”
Opec failed to reach an agreement on curbing oil output at a meeting with non-Opec members in Doha, Qatar in April.
Oil prices have lost more than half their value since mid-2014, with benchmark Brent crude averaging around $43 a barrel this year.
Al Amri said that the Algiers meeting would be “a little different.”
“There was no deal because the circumstances weren't ready to strike a deal. This time they have to do something,” Al Amri said.
A day earlier, United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail Mohammad Faraj Al Mazroui cautioned against the prospects of an agreement in Algiers.
“We are not … targeting a decision, we are meeting for consultations,” Reuters quoted the minister as saying on September 21.
