Haytham al-Gays, Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), made a statement to WAM, the official agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Gays stated that they are currently in talks with Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Brunei and Mexico to become members of the OPEC group, adding that this will add strength to OPEC.
Secretary General Gays said:
“Consultations with new countries that are not members of OPEC contribute to the cohesion and strengthening of the organization. OPEC does not aim for the membership of a certain number of countries; it aims at countries with the same strategic orientation as itself in maintaining oil markets and stability.”
Gays said that the 4 countries where the consultations were held have been in solidarity with OPEC since 2017 and pointed out that all these countries have a common goal of “stabilizing the oil markets”.
Some non-OPEC producer countries, including the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia, established the OPEC+ group in Algeria in 2016.
OPEC currently consists of 13 member countries and the largest producer among them is Saudi Arabia, with a production capacity of 11 million barrels per day.