ALGIERS (Reuters) - OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said the meeting of OPEC members and non-OPEC producers in Algiers this month would be an informal meeting for consultations and not for decision making, Algerian state news agency APS said on Saturday.
Algeria's energy minister has said there is a consensus among OPEC and non-OPEC producers about the need to stabilise the oil market to support prices.
"It will be an informal meeting, it is not a meeting for making decisions," Barkindo said during a visit to Algiers, according to APS agency, referring to an energy conference between Sept. 26 and Sept. 28.
"We met in June, it is September now and a lot of things happened between the two dates," he said.
His comments appeared to play down suggestions of a major decision at the Algiers meeting where Russia, Iran and other major oil producers were due to meet on the sidelines.
Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed this month to cooperate in oil markets, saying they could limit future output. That pushed up prices on the view in markets that the two top oil producers would be working together to tackle oversupply.
Several OPEC producers have called for an output freeze to rein in the glut, which arose as supplies from high-cost producers such as the United States soared. A price collapse in the last two years has hit the revenues of major producers.
OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, has also signalled willingness to cooperate as it faces such pressures.
But any deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producer Russia would be the first in 15 years. Moscow agreed to cut output in tandem with OPEC at the turn of the millennium, although Russia never followed through on that promise.