Kuwait seeks cooperation from non-OPEC oil producers

30 Nov 2014

(MENAFN) Kuwait Oil Ministry urged non-OPEC crude producers to cooperate with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to help stabilize the oil market and prevent sharp fluctuations in prices, Arab News reported.

The ministry said that the decision made by the 12-member OPEC to keep its production ceiling unchanged despite the rise in oil prices was the right one as it was based on market information

The decision by OPC not to cut production has resulted in the prices of oil to plummet even further, reaching a new four-year low, with the decision causing many countries from within or out OPEC to begin considering the long-term ramifications if the prices continued their decline.

Meanwhile, Russia, which is one of the world’s leading oil producers, said that OPEC’s decision to abstain from cuts in oil production has forced it not to proceed with its own cuts.

Russia said that its budget, which oil and natural gas sales represent half of it, has become unbalanced and that the continuous fall in prices is going to affect its, which is already on the brink of recession due to the sanctions it was imposed on it following their political troubles with the Ukraine.

“The experts say that one of the main reasons behind the falling oil prices is that some Arab oil producing countries… are squeezing out shale oil from the international market. If such actions are happening with the aim to fix or confirm one’s position on the market, we should not do anything at the moment to scale down our positions,” Russia’s Energy Ministry said.