OPEC, non-OPEC Nations hold talks in Istanbul

Five Members of OPEC and two non-OPEC countries held “constructive” informal consultations on the sidelines of the 23rd World Energy Congress (WEC) here on Wednesday.

Oil and Energy Ministers from OPEC Member Countries Algeria, Gabon, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Venezuela, were joined in the talks by Russian Energy Minister and Mexican Deputy Energy Minister.

OPEC Conference President, HE Dr. Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, who is Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry, said after the talks that participants had agreed to invite key non-OPEC countries to participate in the High-Level Committee set-up by the Algiers accord.

HE Al-Sada was referring to the agreement reached by OPEC at its 170th (Extraordinary) Meeting of the OPEC Conference in the Algerian capital on 28 September 2016, to consider an oil production target for the Organization’s 14 Member Countries, ranging between 32.5 and 33.0 million barrels/day, in order to accelerate the drawdown of the existing substantial overhang in global oil stocks and bring the rebalancing of the oil market forward.

Wednesday’s meeting in Istanbul was a follow-up to that landmark agreement. It was attended by OPEC Secretary General, HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, and Conference President, HE Al-Sada, along with Algerian Minister of Energy, HE Noureddine Boutarfa; Gabon’s Minister of Petroleum and Hydrocarbons, HE Etienne Dieudonné Ngoubou; United Arab Emirates Minister of Energy, HE Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei; and Venezuelan People’s Minister of Petroleum, HE Eng. Eulogio Del Pino; in addition to, Russian Minister of Energy, Alexander Novak, and Dr. Aldo Flores-Quiroga, Mexico's Deputy Minister of Hydrocarbons.

HE Minister Novak stated after the meeting that it had been constructive and instrumental to moving the process forward.

Meanwhile, HE Al-Sada revealed to journalists that a high-level committee created under the Algiers accord to study the finer details of the agreement is scheduled to hold a technical experts meeting on 28-29 October in Vienna, Austria.

He explained that the first day of this meeting would be dedicated to discussions among the OPEC Member Countries, while the second day would be set aside for deliberations between OPEC and non-OPEC representatives.

HE Minister Novak disclosed that the forthcoming High-Level Committee Meeting to which he stated that Russia will participate would advance the implementation of the Algiers Accord which was welcomed by non-OPEC countries.

“We are building on Algiers,” he pointed out, adding that interaction mechanisms rather than specific figures were discussed in their Istanbul meeting.

OPEC’s Algiers agreement is due to be discussed further at the 171st Meeting of the OPEC Conference, due to be held in Vienna, Austria on 30 November.

HE Barkindo also participated in a World Energy Leaders’ Summit Trilemma Ministerial Roundtable, a high-level dialogue on the energy trilemma existing between energy security, social equity and environmental sustainability.

The five-day WEC, which opened on 9 October, ended yesterday. The event has brought together more than 10,000 participants, including world leaders, dignitaries from the fields of energy, industry, government, and international organizations.