Oil Producers to Meet to Finalize Oil Production Freeze Until June - Maduro

A meeting of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member states, as well as non-OPEC oil producers, will be held in the coming days, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said, adding that participants are expected to ratify the commitment to freeze production at least until June.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – In mid-February, energy ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela, and Russia held talks on the current oil market situation in the Qatari capital of Doha and agreed to freeze oil production at January levels throughout 2016 if other countries followed suit. A number of other states, including Venezuela and non-OPEC member Oman, have expressed interest in the deal.

The Russian Energy Ministry said on Thursday that the exact date and place of an upcoming meeting of oil producers dedicated to the stabilization of the oil market is still under discussion.

"The fall has stopped and [the price of oil] slowly begins to grow," Maduro said in Caracas on Thursday, as quoted by AVN news, announcing that in the coming days a meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC countries will be held where participants are "going to ratify the commitment to freeze production at least until June of this year and continue studying variables and proposals that Venezuela has on the table to retrieve the oil market."

On Thursday, Nigerian Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu said the meeting of OPEC member states and other oil producers on finalizing the Doha output freeze deal was to take place on March 20.

Global oil prices plunged from $115 to less than $30 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016, hitting their lowest levels since 2003 largely because of prolonged global oversupply and weak demand.