Oil facility in Saudi Arabia
© AP Photo/ Hassan Ammar, File
On February 16, the energy ministers of Russia, Venezuela, Qatar and Saudi Arabia agreed to level off average monthly oil output at January levels, in response to persistent low prices.

"Freeze is the beginning of a process," Al-Naimi stated. "If we can get all the major producers to agree not to add additional barrels then with high inventory we have now [supply] will probably decline in the due time."

The Saudi minister claimed that cutting production is not going to happen because not many countries will deliver even if they say they will cut production.

"There is no sense in wasting our time seeking production cuts. This will not happen. What will happen is, we will all as major producers find it easy to freeze production, let demand rise, let some inefficient supplies decline and eventually the market will rebound," he explained.

The oversupply of oil on the world market, and declining economic growth among leading consumers has resulted in oil prices reaching their lowest levels since 2004.