Saudi Arabia won’t change its oil policy30.12.2015

The leading oil exporter – Saudi Arabia will not change its current "solid industrial policy" and is prepared to meet the additional demand of its customers, said on Wednesday the country's oil minister Ali al-Naimi. This is state in The Wall Street Journal.

Saudi Arabia is the biggest member of OPEC. According to the November report of the organization, the country produces about a third of all OPEC quota: 10.1 million barrels of oil per day. Specifically Saudi Arabia, according to market participants, is the main lobbyist for saving the current production levels of OPEC.

Oil prices are at risk of further decline in the first half of 2016, as OPEC is not ready to abandon the policy of pressure on its competitors, according to Citigroup, a large international bank.

"We really are faced with the problem of physical oversupply, which suggests that prices will be low for a long time", - said Tim Evans, Citigroup's oil analyst, in a CNBC interview.

Other experts say that at the last OPEC meeting, it became clear that with the abolition of quotas, each country will continue to fight for market share, especially in connection with the release of US crude oil on the international scene and the return of Iran, which automatically means the inability of OPEC to work out a common position.

The position of OPEC, Iran’s entering into the market after sanctions lifting, the abolition of ban on the export of US oil and, as a consequence, the preservation of the excess oil on the market - all of this is negative for the oil market, since it helps prolong the phase of low oil prices, says an expert.

Today oil prices of both Brent and WTI are traded in red near the mark of $ 37 per barrel.

A day earlier, on Tuesday, oil prices jumped more than 2%.

This partly was because of expectations that forecasters predicted lower temperatures and will stimulate demand for heating oil, says CNBC.