Energy Chief Vows Unilateral Production Cuts in Bid to End Oil Price Slump

Oman's Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Rumhy said his country remains optimistic that the oil market crash will not last, predicting that oil prices will settle at $70 per barrel.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — Oman's Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Rumhy said Thursday the slide in crude oil prices was not sustainable for his country's economy and could force it to unilaterally cut oil output.

"The current situation on the oil market and the price is not sustainable for us. We are not going to wait for better weather, and we are going to do something about it," the minister said at a Berlin summit on energy security.

The 2015 Energy Security Summit seeks to assess the impact of low oil prices on exporters. Oman, which is the biggest Middle Eastern oil producer outside of the Saudi-dominated Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has been feeling the effects of the low global oil prices.

"We are the losers obviously in the question who wins and who loses from low oil prices," Rumhy said, adding that he expected other oil producers to cut their production unilaterally, regardless of Saudi Arabia's position.

Nevertheless, the Oman energy chief said his country remains optimistic that the oil market crash will not last, predicting that oil prices will settle at $70 per barrel.

Crude oil prices dropped 50 percent last year due to oversupply in the global market. OPEC's decision not to curb oil production reinforced this trend. Saudi Arabia subsequently slashed its oil prices, allegedly to protect its market share, although market analysts said Riyadh was waging a "price war."