Al-Falih, Algeria oil minister to meet OPEC head in Paris

Algeria's energy minister will meet his Saudi counterpart and OPEC's secretary-general in Paris on Friday as part of moves toward clinching a global deal on stabilizing crude output to support oil prices, an Algerian official and OPEC sources said.
Algeria will host the informal meeting with Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih and OPEC's Mohammed Barkindo, said the Algerian official, who asked not to be identified.
A source at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries confirmed the meeting as part of a push for an output deal, with producers battered by a glut-induced halving of oil prices over the past two years.
"There is a strong move toward a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC to at least freeze production," the source told Reuters.
"It seems we are going in this direction. But if we are going to freeze, we have to use secondary sources to gauge production levels. We can't allow each country to use a different method," the source said.
"Iran must agree to be in line with other producers and use secondary sources."
Tehran says it supports any measures to stabilize the market. However, it has stopped short of indicating whether it would join a global deal before its production reaches 4 million barrels per day, the level at which it says it was pumping before the imposition of Western sanctions in 2012. 
The sanctions ended in January this year.
The OPEC source said major oil producers were trying to convince Tehran to come onboard, adding there was an initial understanding that only Libya could be offered an exemption.
"Now there is a push to smooth things out and solve any problem," the OPEC source said, adding there had been no agreement yet on any level at which to freeze production.
"This will be discussed in Algeria," the source said.
Algeria is hosting meetings of the International Energy Forum and OPEC on Sept. 26-28. Energy Minister Noureddine Bouterfa traveled to Moscow on Thursday, following recent trips to Qatar and Iran. 
OPEC and Russia are expected to revive talks for a global deal on production in Algeria.
Meanwhile, oil prices soared Thursday on official data revealing the biggest weekly slump in US crude stockpiles for 17 years — a hugely surprising reading that eased concerns over a supply glut.
Markets on both sides of the Atlantic rallied by more than 3.5 percent, with Brent closing in again on $50 a barrel — after the US Department of Energy (DoE) said inventories of commercial crude tumbled last week, confounding analyst expectations for a modest rise.
"The 14.5 million-barrels decline was the biggest (weekly) fall since 1999 and oil prices have absolutely soared higher," said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.
He cautioned however that being only one week's worth of data, "it remains to be seen... whether the trend can be sustained".
Razaqzada added: "For oil prices to rise significantly, we will need to see some further large drops in US oil inventories as they are still near record high levels."
Around 1600 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in October was up $1.69 at $47.19 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for November jumped $1.67 to $49.65, compared with the close on Wednesday.
Industry-compiled data Wednesday from the American Petroleum Institute meanwhile showed that US crude inventories fell 12.1 million barrels last week, helping also to lift oil prices ahead of the DoE figures.
Crude futures have rallied in recent days also thanks to a softer dollar making greenback-denominated crude cheaper for holders of rival currencies.

Source: Arab News