MOSCOW: Consultations on an oil output deal between leading producers should be concluded by March 1 after they reached a common position at a meeting in Doha, Russian's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview shown on Saturday.
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela are ready to freeze production at January levels if other producer countries do the same, Novak said after the talks in Doha on Feb. 16.
If additional oil is not supplied to the global market, then an oil surplus will fall by at least 1.3 million barrels per day, he told television show Vesti on Saturday.
Novak added that consultations would also be held with non-OPEC countries and that talks between Venezuela and Iran were still ongoing.
According to the minister, Iran had taken a relatively constructive stance on the preliminary output freeze deal but had not yet said it was ready to sign up to those proposals.
Iran aims to increase oil production by 700,000 barrels per day in the near future, Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi was quoted as saying on Saturday by the ministry's news agency, Shana. [ID;nL8N15Z072]
Novak also said it was "discussed with colleagues" that an oil price of $50 per barrel would suit consumers and exporters in the long term. He did not elaborate.
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