Effect of Oil Extraction Freeze Agreement to Be Limited

Oil production freeze agreement has not performed its planned effect and will be limited due to bring the balance back to world markets, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The effect from an oil production freeze agreement by a number of countries will be limited in bringing the balance back to world markets, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

"If there is to be a production freeze, rather than a cut, the impact on physical oil supplies will be limited," the IEA said in a monthly report.

At least 17 major oil producing countries are scheduled to meet in the Qatari capital of Doha on Sunday, April 17, to freeze production at January levels to offset oversupplies and steady rapidly declining prices.

Oil prices plummeted from $115 per barrel in mid-2014 to $41.24 per barrel for WTI Crude and $43.66 per barrel for Brent as of early Thursday.

The Paris-based intergovernmental organization lowered its demand forecast by 1.2 million barrels a day to 95.9 million barrels a day this year. In 2015, global demand for crude saw a growth of 1.8 million barrels per day.

Projected production among non-members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) held steady in March at 57 million barrels a day, the IEA added. OPEC members extracted around 32,47 million barrels a day that month, a 90,000 bpd drop behind disruptions in Nigeria, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.