Algeria energy minister sees consensus on need to steady oil price

Algeria’s energy minister says there is a consensus among OPEC and non-OPEC members about the need to stabilize the oil market to support prices, state news agency APS reported.

Noureddine Bouterfa was speaking after meeting his Saudi counterpart Khalid al-Falih and OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo in Paris late on Friday.

Bouterfa has travelled to Qatar, Iran and Russia this week to push for stabilizing the oil price between $50 and $60, and said he was “confident” about the outcome of an OPEC meeting to be held in Algiers on Sept. 26-28.

Bouterfa said Algeria would submit a proposal to steady prices at the meeting. “Our discussions with our partners show that there is a consensus around the necessity of stabilizing the market. That is already something positive,” Bouterfa said.

“We are in contact with the members and the secretary-general of OPEC and that is part of this work of achieving a consensus and I am optimistic.”

“There is support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Venezuela, Kuwait, and from non-OPEC countries, notably Russia.” Algeria is hosting a meeting of the International Energy Forum alongside the OPEC meeting later this month, and Bouterfa said he had discussed both sessions with Falih and Barkindo in Paris.

Algeria is among the oil producers to have taken a heavy hit from the halving of oil prices over the past two years.