Qatari Energy Chief May Join Venezuela, Iran, Iraq Ministers at Oil Talks

OPEC President Mohammed Bin Saleh Sada, who is also the energy minister of Qatar, may join his counterparts from Venezuela, Iran and Iraq at a meeting in Tehran to discuss the proposal reached in Qatar to freeze oil output, a source in the Iranian Petroleum Ministry told Sputnik Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Tuesday, the energy ministers of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar met in Doha. The four agreed to freeze their average monthly oil output throughout 2016 at January levels if other countries followed suit.

"Ministers from Iraq, Venezuela arrive today. Possibly, the Qatari oil minister will come with them to discuss what the OPEC member states have agreed in Doha," the source said.

The final decision on the volume of oil production by Iran will be made after the meeting, the source noted.

"The talks concern what these countries agreed on in Doha. Iran's final decision will be made after our meeting with the ministers, but the issue related to the production is excluded so far," the source added.

Qatar is holding the rotating presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the group in control of over 80 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves.

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 complex financial issues for some nations.