Doha meeting may not live up to expectations

The renowned American expert Edward Chow believes that the upcoming meeting of the main oil producers in Doha will only result in promises of further cooperation in order to stabilize the market. Chow is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC.

Oil producing countries are planning to hold a meeting on April 17 in Doha, which will discuss the issue of freezing oil production at the February level in order to stabilize prices. But according to Chow, none of the participants in the upcoming meeting in Doha expressed a desire to cut production.

Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela at a meeting in Doha on February 16 agreed to support world oil prices to maintain production on average in 2016 at the January level, but only if other producers join the initiative. Among the countries that have expressed such readiness are Ecuador, Algeria, Nigeria, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter to OPEC, announced that it would not freeze oil production without Iran's participation. Iran, on the other hand, said it would not join the plan to freeze oil production.

Currently, global oil supplies still exceed global demand, and it is unlikely that this situation will change before the fourth quarter of 2016 or early 2017, the expert said.

"Holding such a meeting could disappoint the market if it is not followed by concrete action," Chow said, noting that it could lead to a test of the oil price of $ 40 a barrel.

The Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy (EIA) forecasts global oil supplies to reach 96.44 million barrels per day in 2016 and 96.7 million barrels per day in 2017. Global oil demand is predicted by the EIA at 94.85 million barrels per day in 2016 and 96.06 million barrels per day in 2017.