UAE says everyone should move toward freezing oil production

[March 01, 2016]  DUBAI (Reuters) - Oil producers should freeze production if they cannot agree on a cut to balance the global oil market, the United Arab Emirates energy minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

State news agency WAM cited Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazrouei as saying "it is necessary to reach an agreement on a production freeze" to fix the oil market if there was a difficulty to reach a deal to cut output among OPEC members.

He said there were no calls to hold an emergency OPEC meeting, and talks happening now are about cooperation between the exporting group and others to freeze oil output.

"I believe that current prices will force everyone to freeze production.... everyone should move toward freezing production whether they like it or not," the minister said, according to WAM.

(Writing by Rania El Gamal; editing by Jason Neely)

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