OPEC Divided Over Plunging Oil Price - UPDATE

OPEC producers will meet on Thursday in Vienna to discuss production target amid the collapse of crude oil prices. Brent futures traded at $77 a barrel today. The 12-member OPEC pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil, but its members were divided over cutting the production to support the price of oil.

Iran and Saudi Arabia were opposed to production cut, while Russia and Venezuela were pushing to curb output. Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said in Vienna today that tumbling crude prices will stabilize. Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said before a meeting with his Saudi counterpart in Vienna that Iran, OPEC’s fifth-largest producer, will neither cut its oil production nor ask Saudi Arabia to do so. Russia and Venezuela have asked OPEC to lower its official production target of 30 million barrels a day.

UPDATE: GCC has reached a consensus not to cut oil output when OPEC meets on Thursday in Vienna. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi announced the unified decision today.  

File photo: Iran’s oil export terminal at Kharq Island (Getty)