Oil Prices Slow After Reports of Russia, OPEC States Freezing Extractions

Oil prices slowed on Tuesday after reports over an alleged agreement between the energy ministers of Russia and a number of OPEC countries to freeze their levels of extractions, according to energy market statistics.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The ministers who met in Qatar’s capital of Doha decided to freeze oil extractions and will be stabilized at January 11 levels.

As of 09:13 GMT, April futures for North Sea Brent crude grew by 1.36 percent to $33.84 per barrel. March futures for WTI rose by 1.46 percent to $29.87 per barrel.

Earlier WTI and Brent were trading at $31.23 and $35.54 per barrel respectively, or slowed from a 6-percent growth to a 2-percent growth in prices.

Since the collapse in oil prices in the first half of January, officials from the OPEC member states and non-OPEC countries have been mulling a meeting to address the slump in oil prices, which has caused significant financial problems for some nations.