OPEC Countries Prepare for Ministerial Meeting on Friday

Ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet in Vienna on Friday, where the organization is expected to maintain its current production output of 30 million barrels per day (bpd), ignoring calls from some producers to cut supply to support prices.

At its last production-setting meeting in November, OPEC also refused to reduce the output target, prompting a sharp drop in the oil price.

Global oil prices having fallen from around US$115 per barrel in mid-2014 to around US$60-$65 per barrel now, inflicting major economic difficulties on many of the world's biggest oil producers. 

This drop in oil prices alarmed Venezuela and Ecuador, where oil revenues account for a substantial portion of annual budgets. 

Ecuador and Venezuela are the only South American members of the Arab-dominated OPEC. 

Leading up to Friday’s ministerial meeting, Ecuador's oil minister Pedro Merizalde said he wanted to see an oil price that suited both producers and consumers. 

"Producers and consumers [should] have a price that both sides will be happy with," he said, adding that he wanted a "balanced price."

Meanwhile, during OPEC’s two-day international seminar on Wednesday and Thursday, Venezuelan Oil Minister Asdrubal Chavez advocated for greater cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC member countries in efforts to reach an "equitable" oil price.

Chavez went on to add, "Defending the value of our strategic natural non-renewable resources is a duty of oil producing countries to provide our peoples with the greatest happiness possible."