Potential Oil Production Agreement: More Time Needed?

The global oil price plunged from $115 to less than $27 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016(reuters.com), hitting its lowest level since 2003. Amidst an ongoing oversupply in the global oil market, Energy experts believe if global supply isn’t cut back, price will take a nosedive.
With a plan to cut back global supply in February, energy ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela, and Russia talked about the oil market situation in Doha and agreed that if other countries followed suit in freezing oil production, they will equally do same and they expected the deal to be finalized on the 17th of April, it is worthy of note to state that, Iran did not take part in this meeting. This meeting was attended by some 18 oil nations including OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia and top non – OPEC producer Russia. The purpose of this meeting was to help balance supply and demand in the market by end of 2016, according to Reuters.

Twenty of the world’s largest exporters gathered again as planned on the 17th of April, yet the meeting ending with a stalemate. Iran decided at the last minute not to attend the meeting while Saudi Arabia out rightly vowed not to freeze production except other major producers did same.
Stakeholders and Industry players wished that all parties would have come to an agreement after the second meeting and would at least serve as a bridge to the OPEC meeting in June 2016. Collapse of talks is directly proportional to the global prices of crude oil. Fresh pressures might be on the way.
Insiders in the Oil industry say that Saudi Arabia Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was the one who made the final call and the failure of Doha deal came down to the refusal of Saudi Arabia and Iran to agree.
Mohammed Saleh al Sada, Qatar’s oil minister, told reporters that the group “needs more time” to construct the outlines of deal to freeze output.

Source : Reuters.com