Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 14
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Azerbaijan has been invited to the technical meeting of oil experts from OPEC and non-OPEC countries that will be held on October 21 in Vienna, Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino told Reuters.
Other non-OPEC countries that have been invited to the meeting are Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Norway, Mexico, Oman and Russia.
"The confirmations are coming in gradually and I'm personally calling ministers to ensure that the delegation is of the adequate level of authority," del Pino said.
Venezuela will unveil a bold new oil strategy this month. The OPEC country's long-time oil minister and current United Nations ambassador, Rafael Ramirez, told Reuters in an interview the proposal would reapply the old mechanism of progressive production cuts to control prices, with a "first floor" of $70 per barrel and a later target of $100 per barrel.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in September proposed a summit meeting between major world oil producers from OPEC and non-OPEC members to discuss slashing production to shore up prices that have slumped by more than half.
However, later, Kuwait's oil minister Ali al-Omair said that OPEC has no plan to participate in a summit of oil producers proposed by Venezuela to support prices. "There will be no conference before December 4. The problem is that there is no commitment from non-OPEC producers for what they will undertake to help stabilise the market," Ali al-Omair said.
OPEC last met this summer in Vienna, when it agreed to leave its production ceiling unchanged at 30 million barrels per day. The next meeting of the cartel will take place on Dec. 4.