Maduro Says Hopes to Announce New OPEC, Non-OPEC Deal to Stabilize Oil Market

Member states of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-cartel oil producers are close to reaching an agreement on stabilizing the situation on the crude market, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said, expressing hope that the deal would be announced this month.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The president stressed that the country promoted dialogue between oil producing countries to reach deals which would allow to sustain the level of investment that the industry needed, as well as to meet the world energy demand.

"We can say that we are close to reaching an agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries, and we hope that we can announce this agreement in September to stabilize the market and improve oil prices," Maduro said Sunday as quoted by Radio Nacional de Venezuela.

Caracas’ proposal on the issue is "to begin to move towards a new methodology that contributes to stability in the market," and to achieve fair prices for crude oil, Maduro said.

Global oil prices plunged from $115 to less than $30 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016, hitting their lowest levels since 2003 amid the ongoing glut in global oil supply and causing significant problems for energy companies and oil-producing countries. Up to 96 percent of Venezuela’s budget depends on oil, forcing the country to into a state of economic emergency.

In order to support oil prices, both OPEC member states and non-cartel members made a number of efforts to freeze oil output, but these attempts failed.