Opec is set to announce a cut in its production by one million barrels of oil a day to check the slide in global prices, Algeria's Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said Sunday.
He said the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would make the announcement during a meeting in Doha between October 18 and 21.
"All the member countries have reached agreement to reduce Opec production by a million barrels a day," he said, adding that the move "would certainly have a direct impact on the market".
A spokesman for the current Nigerian presidency of Opec later told AFP in Lagos that the decision would be announced after a "consultative meeting" of the cartel in Doha on Thursday.
"It's a consultative meeting of one day with an agenda obviously including the question of the reduction of production ... Decisions are to be announced the same day," spokesman Levi Ajuonuma said.
New York crude fell last week to its lowest price this year before recovering slightly on Friday.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, closed on Friday up 71 cents at 58.57 dollars per barrel, but off earlier highs.
The contract had plunged Thursday to 57.22 dollars - marking its lowest point since December 19, 2005, and a 27-percent drop from its record high of 78.40 dollars in mid-July.
In London on Friday, Brent North Sea crude for November delivery settled up 76 cents at 59.52 dollars per barrel, also off earlier highs.
Since striking record high points earlier this year, crude futures have crashed on fading geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, an uneventful US Atlantic hurricane season, and bulging US energy stockpiles.
Khelil's announcement on Sunday is the latest indication that Opec is planning to prop up prices in response to falls of some 25 percent from record highs earlier this year.
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Friday that the cartel was preparing to cut output by some one million barrels a day starting in December.
"We think this is a healthy and necessary measure because there is significant overproduction, abundant supplies on the market and this could lead to a collapse of prices," Ramirez said in an interview with state television.
He added that there was a "consensus" among Opec ministers to hold a meeting later this month to work out details of a production cut.
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