Nigerian Official Says Some OPEC Members to Meet With Russia March 20 

• Crude oil prices have plunged more than 70% since June 2014

Some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are scheduled to meet with non-member Russia later in the month as part of efforts to stabilize crude oil prices, a senior Nigerian official said Thursday.

Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, said the meeting will take place on March 20 in Moscow to “fine tune collaborative strategies,” according to a statement from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. His comments were the first by an official providing details of the timing and location of a possible meeting.

Russian and Venezuela, an OPEC member, previously had said a meeting of producers would take place to finalize a deal to freeze production.

Officials from Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait said earlier Thursday that no final decision had been made on the time and location of the meeting.

Mr. Kachikwu didn’t name the OPEC member countries that would meet with Russia.

Last month, the energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Russia–the world’s two largest crude-oil exporters–agreed with Qatar and Venezuela to freeze their production amid mounting pressure to prop up slumping oil prices.

Crude oil prices have plunged more than 70% since June 2014, largely because of surging supplies from the U.S., Russia and OPEC members including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria and Iran.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude exporter has seen its revenue drop sharply because of the plummeting prices for oil, the source of over 90% of its foreign exchange and 70% of government revenue, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari last week held talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, on measures to achieve greater stability in crude prices.

Source: WSJ

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