With oil markets hemorrhaging for more than two-and-a-half years amid the worst oil market in arguably a generation, two weeks ago it appeared that Russia and OPEC de facto leader Saudi Arabia, the world’s top two oil producers, could possibly and finally agree on an oil production cap at a planned informal meeting of oil producers to be held on the sidelines of an energy forum in Algiers in a little more than a week.

Moscow and Riyadh, both reeling from prolonged low oil prices, agreed to agree that something had to be done to address the supply glut and plunge in global oil prices of around 60% since mid-2014.

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin chimed in on the matter, hinting that Iran, who is still trying to reach pre-sanction output levels of 4 million barrels per day (bpd), could be placated, stating that an oil production freeze could include a compromise on Iranian ouput.

Iran’s failure to participate in a production cap meeting in April caused a knee-jerk response from regional rival Saudi Arabia who also pulled out of the meeting.

However, disheartening news for oil markets broke over the weekend when OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo, a Nigerian, said that the Algiers meeting would be an informal meeting for consultations and not for decision making, according to a report in Algerian state news agency (APS) on Saturday.

“It will be an informal meeting, it is not a meeting for making decisions,” Barkindo said. “We met in June, it is September now and a lot of things happened between the two dates.”

Could Nigeria swing oil markets?

•Sourced from Forbes. Photo shows OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo.

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