MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2020) Even though Switzerland depends on oil imports, it supports the stabilization of oil market as the current volatility hampers long-term planning, Tobias Privitelli, the deputy head of the Swiss diplomatic mission to Russia, told Sputnik.
"In general, our economy prefers stable conditions in the global oil market which in turn allows for better planning security and thus lower costs for economic stakeholders. In that sense, stabilizing the market would be highly welcome to benefit not only Switzerland but the world at large," Privitelli said, when asked what stance Switzerland shares considering that its end users and business may benefit from low oil prices.
The oil prices have sharply fallen against the background of COVID-19 and the failure of OPEC+ talks in early March.
On Thursday, the OPEC and non-OPEC states, commonly referred to as the OPEC+ group, started their extraordinary talks on ways to stabilize the market and rescue the falling prices. The negotiations finally concluded in the early hours of Friday.
The states agreed in principle on a three-stage reduction of oil production. From May-June, the output will be decreased by 10 million barrels per day by each country. From July-December, it will be cut by 8 million barrels per day; and it will see a decrease of 6 billion barrels per day from January 2021-April 2022.
All the involved parties will hold their calculations on the basis of the October 2018 output level, except for Russia and Saudi Arabia, which will use 11 million barrels per day as a baseline.
The deal is conditional on the consent of Mexico that withdrew from the negotiations.
The talks will be followed by a meeting of G20 energy ministers on Friday.
