Market and product

Three OPEC-member countries, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela, and non-OPEC Russia are ready to freeze crude production at January levels, if other oil producers join this initiative, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday.

An agreement on this was reached during a meeting between the top energy officials of the four countries in Doha, Qatar, Novak said after the meeting, according to a statement from his press office.

Oil ministers Ali Naimi of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada of Qatar and Eulogio del Pino of Venezuela took part in the meeting as well as Novak.

"As a result of the meeting, the four countries -- Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela -- are ready to maintain average volumes of crude production in 2016 at January levels and do not exceed them. The decision will be taken if other [crude] producers join the initiative," Novak said, according to the statement.

Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh, meanwhile, said he would hold trilateral talks in Tehran Wednesday with Venezuela's del Pino and Iraqi oil minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, but offered little hope Iran would be willing to hold back its plans to boost production and exports.

"What is important is that, first, the oil market is currently facing oversupply, and second, Iran will not refrain from its share," Zanganeh said.

Commenting on the Doha talks, he said: "In this meeting, the talks were about freezing the production, and this has room for discussion and examination, and it should be seen what they mean by that," he said, quoted by oil ministry news service Shana.

After sanctions were lifted in mid-January, Zanganeh spoke of an immediate post-sanctions supply boost of 500,000 b/d and a further increase of 500,000 b/d over the following six months.

He acknowledged earlier this week that some obstacles related to shipping insurance and banking remained, but said he expected these to be resolved shortly.

Speculation about possible crude production action has risen to fever pitch in recent weeks after Novak said in late January that OPEC was in talks with non-OPEC producers on holding a meeting in February to discuss potential options for tackling the supply glut because oil is currently trading at multi-year lows of around $33-$34/b for benchmark Brent crude futures.

Crude production by non-OPEC Russia hit a new all-time high of 10.878 million b/d in January, the fourth straight month in which production has hit a fresh record high.

Saudi Arabia's crude production has been also running at record levels above 10 million b/d for nearly a year. In January, it boosted output by 100,000 b/d to 10.2 million b/d, after a dip in December, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts showed last week.

Qatar's and Venezuela's output have remained mainly flat at 660,000 b/d and 2.35 million b/d, respectively, in the last three months.