Dec 3 (Lagos) - Qatar will exit OPEC effective Jan 2019 according to the country's Minister of state for energy affairs Saad al-Kaabi.
Qatar is the world's largest producer of LNG but one of the smallest producers of crude oil producing about 600,000 barrels a day.
Also the country is locked in a bitter diplomatic row with the de-facto leader of OPEN the Saudi Arabia.
As crude oil prices get cheaper the relevance of OPEC is gradually reducing. USA is not the biggest producer of crude oil in the world and Russia is also in the top three meaning only 1 in top 3 is from OPEC.
The OPEC meeting slated for later this month will focus on output. The biggest and fastest growing economies of the world India and China need crude oil prices to stay lower. Russian and US Presidents have also given support to lower oil prices last month.
It is a turnaround in crude oil prices which seemed to be heading towards the $100/barrel mark couple of months ago but are not hovering around the $50/barrel mark, a level which is comfortable for most of the world.
reporting for easykobo.com on Monday, Dec 3 2018 from Lagos, Nigeria