Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela are ready to freeze oil production at January’s level if other producers do the same.

The agreement came after a meeting in Doha on Tuesday.

Oil prices have dropped below $30 a barrel in recent months, a fall of 70 percent since 2014.
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Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Doha, said the challenge would be to get other producing countries, including Iran, to freeze production as well.

Iran’s IRNA news agency said on Sunday the country had exported its first crude shipment to Europe since it reached a landmark deal last year with world powers.

IRNA quoted Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi as saying the shipment, the first in five years, marked “a new chapter” in Iran’s oil industry.

Javadi said Iran had already reached an agreement to export oil to France, Russia and Spain.

Iran said in January that it planned to add to its production, which stands at 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) despite the drop in price, and should not be blamed for further price falls.

Saadallah al Fathi, a former adviser to Iraq’s Ministry of Oil and former head of the Energy Studies Department, OPEC Secretariat, told Al Jazeera that freezing output at January’s levels was not going to immediately cut supplies.

“There is already too much oil on the market,” Fathi said.

“I don’t think freezing production is going to mean anything, unless other producers come into the picture. Within the next few weeks or few months I think there will be a flurry of activity to get other producers on board.”

[Source: Al-Jazeera]