5 countries to reduce oil production in April

Saudi Minister of Petroleum Ali Ben Ibrahim al-Naimy announced yesterday that petroleum ministers and officials from five major petroleum-exporting countries decided to reduce their production by 2 million barrels daily, starting from April 1.

He said they reached an accord following the negotiations in Holland between the petroleum ministers from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, Venezuela and Mexico.

Algerian Petroleum Minister Youssef El-Youssefi, the current president of the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC), said this agreement will include Norway, which formally gave its preliminary approval on joining this accord.

El-Youssefi and al-Neimy expected that the prices of petroleum to improve one month after implementing the agreement, and El-Youssefi expected that the prices would quickly increase to between $15 and $16 per barrel during the summer.