Business
About 18 oil exporting nations, which attended a meeting in Doha, the capital of Qatar, failed to reach a consensus on capping global oil production to stem the plummeting crude prices over the past 18 months. The failed talks resulted in crashing of oil prices in Asian trading with both the U.S. and London crude oil registering a 5 percent decline in prices.
“Talks hit difficulties” because of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia demanded all O.P.E.C producers, including Iran, to curtail oil supplies but Iran, which didn’t attend the meeting, has maintained it would continue increasing its oil production. However, the failure of talks would exert more pressure on shale oil producers in the U.S., who are the main reasons for “plentiful” supplies and tumbling oil prices since mid-2014.
CNN reports:
The major oil producing nations, with their strained economies due to falling oil prices, have been forced to bring in “spending cuts and reduce subsidies” in the recent times. The situation may worsen as O.P.E.C warned in one of its reports about “fragile global demand” despite low oil prices. The market analysts believe that a “price recovery” with a production cut is “extremely unlikely” in the current scenario.
