The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
BAGHDAD / Reuters
The global oil market is improving and stabilising, Saudi Oil Minister Khalid
al-Falih said in Baghdad on Saturday.
In a speech at the opening of the Baghdad International Exhibition, Falih praised the cooperation between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which he said had helped to boost global oil prices.
Speaking later to reporters, he said Saudi Arabia and Iraq were in agreement on the need to “fully comply”
with cutbacks in crude output agreed by OPEC, Russia and several other
producers to push up prices.
“The market has improved a lot
but has still some way to go,” he said. Falih is the first Saudi official to
make a public speech in Baghdad for several decades.
The two countries began taking steps towards detente in 2015 after 25 years of troubled relations starting with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Falih visited Iraq earlier this year.
“The best example of the importance of cooperation between our two countries is the improvement and stab-
ility trend seen in the oil market,” said Falih, to applause from the audience
of Iraqi ministers, senior officials
and businessmen.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq are the largest and second largest producers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The Iraqi oil ministry said in a statement Falih and his Iraqi counterpart, Jabar al-Luaibi, agreed to cooperate in implementing decisions by oil exporting countries to curb global supply in order to lift crude prices. OPEC, Russia and other producers have reduced
production by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) since the start of
2017, helping to boost oil prices.
The cutbacks should continue until March 2018.
called for increased economic cooperation between the two countries at all levels, saying Saudi Arabia is implementing measures to facilitate the flow of goods and services between the two countries. A Saudi commercial airplane, operated by Flynas, arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday for the first time in 27 years. In August, the two countries said they planned to open the Arar land border crossing for trade for the first time since 1990.