EconomyLatin America

Venezuela sends proposals to oil majors

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Venezuela has announced that it is sending new proposals to key oil producers in an attempt which it says is meant to help stabilize the prices. 

The announcement of the proposals that have been sent to OPEC and non-OPEC producers was made by President Nicolas Maduro through a televised address.

Maduro, however, did not give any details, Reuters reported.

This came after oil ministers from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russia said they had agreed to freeze output at January levels for multiple months if others joined in.

Iran welcomed the freeze deal in a subsequent meeting that it hosted with the oil ministers of Venezuela, Iraq and Qatar but stopped short of pledging to act itself and it is unclear whether the freeze will actually take effect.

Oil prices have crashed more than 70 percent in the past 20 months, driven by near-record production by the OPEC and other producers, adding to one of the worst supply gluts in history.

Experts believe that the global oil market is oversupplied by around 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), but that glut could be halved if the deal to freeze oil production at last month’s levels takes effect.

Crisis-hit Venezuela has been pushing for an oil deal to offset a brutal recession that cost the leading Socialist Party its legislative majority in a December election.

Oil prices fell 4 percent on Friday, with Brent down a third straight week, as record-high US crude stockpiles intensified worries that a plan to freeze world output will do little or nothing to reduce massive oil supplies already in the market.

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