Oil Output Limits Not Brought Up at Preparatory Talks Ahead of OPEC Meeting

Potential crude output limits were not discussed at a preparatory gathering ahead of the June 2 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting, Bloomberg reports citing anonymous sources.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Representatives of OPEC member-states agreed during the preparatory meeting in Vienna that supply and demand would start rebalancing in the second half of the year, the sources said.

Oil prices have plunged more than 60 percent from their peak of over $110 a barrel in June 2014 because of global oil production outpacing global demand. Since the 12-year low registered in January, oil prices have rebounded more than 75 percent.

In April, OPEC and major non-OPEC oil producers failed to agree on freezing oil output at January levels to shore up prices after Saudi Arabia backed out of the deal, insisting that Iran, which has been boosting oil production after years of international sanctions, should be part of any production cuts.

US Energy Information Administration (EIA) administrator Adam Sieminski told Sputnik earlier this month that oil prices would reach some $50 by the end of the current year.