Novak: Russia ready to take part in another meeting on oil production freeze like the one in Doha

Baku. 18 April. REPORT.AZ/ Russia is ready to take part in another meeting on oil production freezing like the one in Doha in case the countries reach necessary agreements by an OPEC summit in June, Report informs, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in his interview with NTV channel.

"In general, we expected an agreement would be reached and I thought the countries that have come here did it in a bid to reach an agreement but not to discuss the necessity of participation in this process of countries that did not take part," he said. "Nevertheless, non-OPEC countries, including Russia, will be ready to look at a possibility to take part in another meeting is such agreements are reached."

Participants in the Doha meeting have failed to reach an agreement as a number of OPEC member countries changed their position on oil production freezing, Alexander Novak said.

"These countries [that advanced additional demands] were Saudi Arabia and a number of other OPEC countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar - mostly countries of the Gulf… This positions was spoken out, widely discussed but we have failed to reach common ground," he noted.

Russia to continue monitoring situation, it is necessary to agree on freezing oil production within OPEC, said Novak.

Russian Energy Minister stated that oil market to come into balance by mid-2017, with agreement on freezing oil production it would happen 3 months earlier.

"Judging by the current tendencies and future demand and supply growth on the market, as well as by shrinking investments, we arrived at a conclusion that the market is to get balanced by mid-2017," he said.