The joint meeting of the OPEC and Non-OPEC members will start shortly in the OPEC Secretariat.

Some 13 OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Venezuela and Ecuador as well as the non-OPEC states including Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Oman, Guinea, South Sudan, Bolivia, Malaysia and Bahrain, are present in the meeting. 

Participants in the joint meeting are to discuss details of the project for output cut plan and each country's supply share. Estimates show that in the working breakfast and prior to the official meeting of the OPEC and non-OPEC members, major portion of the agreement will be reached.

Meanwhile, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia, Khalid A. Al-Falih, announced on Friday that he was optimistic of the meeting of the OPEC and non-OPEC members.

To a question whether he expected other non-OPEC states, except Russia, would decrease the output level, Al-Falih said in the meeting the quota of each of the non-OPEC states will be specified and about 10 to 11 states will be committed to reduce their production. 

The OPEC members, that have been desperate in their policies since 2008, reached an agreement on Wednesday to cut the output to their ceiling of 32.5 million barrels. The cornerstone for the agreement had been laid in the Algeria meeting in October and on extensive consultations of the members, it bore fruit in the OPEC 171st meeting. 

On recent OPEC decision, all countries will cut their latest output by 4.5 percent with October 2016 being the reference date. Iran will be exempted from the rule. Iran's base crude production will be based on the highest figure in its production history and the 2005 output, i.e. 3.975 million barrels per day, will be the reference figure.