Job is not yet done, says Al-Falih ahead of OPEC meet

Ahead of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting in Vienna where the members will discuss an extension to last year’s production-cut agreement, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said “the job is not yet done,” The Financial Times reported.

“More hard work and commitment is essential,” Al-Falih was quoted as saying.

The Vienna meeting, which will include leading non-member exporters such as Russia, will debate if the output agreement should be extended beyond its expiry in March 2018.

Al-Falih, who was speaking at a meeting of several OPEC and non-OPEC members, said the full participation of “all countries” was necessary in whatever further action producers take.

Meanwhile, Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak said the deal which came into effect in January had been “very successful.”

Novak said the group needed a strategy beyond March 2018, but did not elaborate, the newspaper said.