On Tuesday, the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, and Qatar emerged from an unannounced meeting in Doha to announce that they would not increase oil output above January's levels, if other major oil producing nations agreed to freeze supply as well. The Venezuelan oil minister said he would be discussing the freeze with Iran and Iraq in Tehran on Wednesday, though Iran has pledged to ramp up its oil output after the end of international sanctions in January.
The meeting and proposed output freeze follow 18 months of slipping oil prices, down now to about $35 a barrel, the lowest price in more than a decade. Amid oil's long slide, major oil producing countries have put defending or increasing market share before shoring up prices, and the Doha meeting is widely seen as the first serious step to stabilize prices.
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