Novak: Production freeze has been agreed, but at night, some participants changed their position – BBC News

The negotiations of oil-producing countries, which were waiting for an agreement to freeze production at an impasse. This has brought down the price of black gold. Behind them stretched the Asian indices. From how the negotiations were and what to expect next, the head of the Russian Ministry of Energy Alexander Novak said in an exclusive interview. “Russia 24″

According to him, before the meeting had been expectations that the participating countries meeting in Doha ” They came not in vain, and come to an agreement on the production of freeze agreement. ” On the eve of the experts we worked, and produced a document of several items relating to production freeze. “It is envisaged that countries agree among themselves on frozen at the level of January until October 1, the volume of production”, – said Novak. This creates a high-level advisory board consisting of two OPEC member states and two countries outside of OPEC, which will monitor the implementation of this agreement. “We were full of confidence, as all countries have agreed on the document,” – said Novak. “Unfortunately, – he continued – the morning (17 April), we learned that some OPEC countries have changed their position.” That is, having expressed support for the need to freeze production, changes in the conditions of accession to this agreement. According to Novak, there was a condition: not only the 18 countries should join the agreement, but also a country that did not exist in Qatar – Iran and Libya, as well as a number of countries outside of OPEC, which are major exporters on the market and who did not come because of his “line item” on

“of course, in our opinion, such requirements with respect to third parties – well, no one can say today: to join or not they join.” – Novak said. In his opinion, it would be an agreement with an unpredictable outcome, why go to such an agreement would be strange. With the approach of Russia, according to the Russian minister, the consent of the majority present at the meeting.

However, to reach an agreement, a consensus was needed. “This is not an international organization, it was a meeting of countries – at the request, it does not require a vote, and if at least one country is against, not reached an agreement as a whole”, – said the head of the Ministry of Energy

Novak said that. consultations will continue until the next meeting of OPEC countries to be held in Vienna in June.

Commenting on the fall in oil prices after the meeting in Doha, Novak said that agreement on the production freeze reached in February between Russia, Qatar, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, have played on the increase, will reduce the risk of speculative nature

“as for the price -. see how the market will react to my opinion, no agreement is reached, probably, is still negative for the market. “- says Novak. “In recent years we have seen a significant reduction in short positions This means that market participants are speculators, seeing the agreement, do not open short positions price volatility risks are significantly reduced..”, – Said the Minister

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