Investing.com – The 15th International Energy Forum (IEF15) kicked off in Algiers on Monday with all eyes on the informal meeting tentatively scheduled for Wednesday afternoon among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Hosted by the Government of Algeria, the meeting from September 26 to 28 will gather ministers, senior officials, chief executive officers, international organizations, and experts from the 72 member countries of the IEF.
The IEF seeks to strengthen the global energy dialogue in a context wherein international oil prices have fallen by more than 50% since its last meeting in May 2014 due to weak global economic expansion and oversupply causing revenues to decline substantially for oil exporting countries.
“Globally, investments have been reduced to very low levels, inducing a potential risk of supply shortages in the medium-term,” the IEF said even as world refinery capacity has expanded with crude stocks reaching record levels.
The IEF agenda
Participants are scheduled to arrive on Monday with a welcoming reception scheduled for 14:30ET (18:30GMT).
On Tuesday the inauguration session will begin at 4:00AM ET (8:00AM GMT) followed by several plenary sessions throughout the day dealing with topics ranging from the outlook and stability challenge for oil markets, to challenges in natural gas along with the prospects and challenges for renewables and energy efficiency.
Further sessions will continue on Wednesday with a concluding statement expected at 7:30AM (11:30AM GMT), followed by a farewell lunch that will end at 9:30AM ET (13:30GMT).
Informal meeting of OPEC members
Tentatively expected for Wednesday afternoon, OPEC members, led by Saudi Arabia and other big Middle East crude exporters, such as Iran and Iraq, will hold an informal meeting in which non-OPEC producer Russia was expected to participate, although some reports last week indicated that Moscow’s representatives would not even stay until the end of the IEF.
According to market experts, chances that the meeting would yield any action to reduce the global glut appeared minimal.
Saudi Arabia had already warned that no “formal decision” would be made at the gathering.
Instead, most experts believe that oil producers will continue to monitor the market and possibly postpone freeze talks to the official OPEC meeting in Vienna on November 30.
But Algerian energy minister Noureddine Bouterfa insisted on Sunday that all options were possible for an oil output cut or freeze.
"We will not come out of the meeting empty-handed," Bouterfa said.
Last week, reports suggested that Saudi Arabia had also offered to reduce production if Iran caps its own output this year, an offer to which Tehran had yet to respond.
It was unclear if the offer would allow Iran to reach pre-sanction levels of production which the country has repeatedly made clear is its intention before discussing any possibility of a freeze.
An attempt to jointly curb output levels earlier this year failed after Saudi Arabia backed out over Iran's refusal to take part of the initiative over precisely that issue, underscoring the difficulty for political rivals to forge consensus.
Meanwhile, oil prices were finding support from the Algerian energy minister’s aforementioned comments on Sunday.
U.S. crude oil futures gained 0.74% to $44.81 at 5:47AM ET (9:47AM GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.71% to $46.81.