Oil Production Decrease Possible With Consensus of Crude Producers

Bahraini Energy Minister Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza said that if opinions of OPEC members and countries that are not included in the organization on the necessity to cut oil prices coincide, then decreasing production to raise oil prices is possible.

MANAMA (Sputnik) — Cutting down oil production to raise global crude prices is possible should the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil-producing countries reach a corresponding agreement, Bahraini Energy Minister Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza said Thursday.

"In the past OPEC cut down its [oil] production when oil prices fell. Nowadays most main producers don’t want to cut production out of fears they’ll lose their market share. But if opinions of OPEC members and countries that are not included in the organization on the necessity to cut oil prices coincide, then decreasing production to raise oil prices is possible," Mirza told RIA Novosti.

The minister refrained from giving a forecast for oil prices for this year.

Global oil prices plunged from $115 per barrel to less than $30 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016, the lowest levels since 2003.

Earlier this week, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem Badri called on all major producers "to sit down and come up with a solution" to a three-quarter drop in global oil prices.