With the global economy reeling from the seemingly unstoppable decline in crude oil prices, some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are allegedly considering a cut in oil production, which would help stop the crude price free-fall, reported MarketWatch.
To address the alarming trends prevalent in the oil industry, outgoing OPEC President and Nigeria's top oil official Emmanuel Kachikwu said Tuesday that the organization might hold an emergency meeting as early as February. The closest OPEC meeting is supposed to be slated for June 2016.
"I think a ... majority in terms of [OPEC] membership are beginning to feel that the time has come to ... have a meeting and dialogue again once more without the sort of tension that we had in Vienna on this," he said, according to CNN Money.
Kachikwu's announcement, however, was quickly debunked by U.A.E. energy minister Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei, who asserted that it is not "fair to ask OPEC" to independently cut production, further emphasizing that the organization's current strategy is "working."
The OPEC president's announcement was received warmly by investors, with oil prices initially climbing above $32 a barrel. However, the oil industry's rally was short-lived, as oil prices dropped once more after the U.A.E. minister's announcement.
Nevertheless, Kachikwu believes that an agreement between the members of the organization remains a very realistic possibility, reported The Nation.
"I think ultimately for the interest of everybody some policy change will happen. Now will the amount of barrels that you can take out because of that policy change necessarily make that much of a dramatic difference? Probably not, but the symbolism of the action is even more important than the volumes that are taken out of the market," he said.
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