Environment & Energy | Sunday 21 February, 2016 4:52 am |

Saudi Arabia is among the healthiest of the oil producing countries of the world, a top Riyadh-based economist asserted Saturday as reports said the Kingdom, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela will monitor the oil market following the recent agreement in Doha to freeze production and potentially take additional measures to rescue prices.

“The Doha agreement was an important step forward,” John Sfakianakis told Arab News.
New steps to stabilize the market could be considered in the next few months, he added. 
Saudi Arabia's balance sheet is very healthy with very low debt and reserves equal to 100 percent of its economy, he pointed out.
“There will be no change in the currency status quo. There will be no devaluation and no depegging,” said Sfakianakis.
Also Saturday, Russian's Energy Minister Alexander Novak told Reuters consultations on an oil output deal between leading producers should be concluded by March 1 after they reached a common position at a meeting in Doha. 
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela are ready to freeze production at January levels if other producer countries do the same, Novak said after the talks in Doha on Feb. 16.
Novak also said it was "discussed with colleagues" that an oil price of $50 per barrel would suit consumers and exporters in the long term. 
Speaking to Arab News, Sfakianakis added: “Saudi Arabia still holds more than 100 percent of its GDP in foreign assets and the budget deficit is estimated to be lower in 2016 by two percentage points compared to 2015.” 
Saudi Arabia’s fiscal consolidation is on track given the efficiency measures it’s taking on its capex and opex front, Sfakianakis told Arab News. 
Commenting on the Doha agreement, James Reeve, deputy chief economist and assistant general manager, Samba Financial Group, said: The markets are still skeptical about how it will be implemented.” 
“Also, there is still a huge amount of oil stocks that have to be worked off before the market can return to balance. And that is going to take some time given the weakness of global demand,” said Reeve.
“We doubt that the Doha agreement will work and we don't see the market rebalancing until 2017,” he added.
In the Reuters report, the Russian minister also said that consultations would also be held with non-OPEC countries and that talks between Venezuela and Iran were still ongoing.
According to the minister, Iran had taken a relatively constructive stance on the preliminary output freeze deal but had not yet said it was ready to sign up to those proposals.
Iran aims to increase oil production by 700,000 barrels per day in the near future, Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi was quoted as saying on Saturday by the ministry's news agency, Shana.