(Ecofin Agency) - The Secretary-General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said that the September 26-28 meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers in Algiers, would be an informal meeting for consultations and not for decision making.

According to him, the group is not looking for a definite price range for oil, they are seeking stability for the market.“The informal gathering was proposed as a move to having an extraordinary meeting with the aim of taking decisions to stabilize the market. We met in June, it is September now and a lot of things happened between the two dates. Algeria has a proposal for participants in the Algiers meeting. Consultations with our partners show there is a consensus around the need to stabilize the market,” Mohammed Barkindo (photo) said.

More than a few OPEC members have requested for an output freeze to ease the oil glut that has prompted a price downfall in the last two years, affecting the revenues of major oil producers.Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed this month to take part in the oil markets, adding that they could limit future output.

Iran’s President on the other hand has said the country would support any move to stabilize the global oil market and bolster prices.The president was quoted saying that instability and falling oil prices are harmful to all countries. “Tehran welcomes any move aimed at market stability and improvement of oil prices based on justice, fairness and fair quota of all the oil producers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Libya has said it will not freeze oil production until it reaches at least 1.6 mln barrels production level.“We are not ready for freezing until we achieve the production volume we had before,” Mohammed Owen, OPEC representative said.According to him, the country intends to boost output from the current 300 000 barrels a day to the 1.6 million barrels being produced in the time of Muammar Gaddafi.

Any agreement arrived between OPEC and non-OPEC producer Russia, would be the first since 2001 and the latter has agreed to freeze output together with OPEC, even though it never keep to that promise.

Anita Fatunji