The UAE has denied claims made earlier by Nigerian Petroleum Minister that an emergency meeting of OPEC was in order to discuss the current oil pricing policy amid a 12-year low drop of oil prices to $30, reported Reuters. Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, had made a statement that some OPEC members will work toward an earlier OPEC meeting in March 2016, adding that there were already informal talks taking place with non-OPEC producers like Russia, Bloomberg informed.

According to Trade Arabia, two OPEC delegates to an energy summit in Abu Dhabi confirmed that there were no plans to hold such a meeting and a discussion of oil prices drop would have to wait until the next scheduled summit in June 2016.

In addition, UAE’s Energy Minister, Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui, defended the current OPEC strategy, saying that its pricing policy would bear fruit if given enough time. He insisted that OPEC could not unilaterally rework this strategy, given global market conditions. He added that the first half of 2016 would be a difficult year for all oil producers, with recovery likely to come later in the year. Al Mazroui stressed that all OPEC members had the right to increase production, including Iran, which led some analysts to downgrade oil prices forecast to as low as $10 a barrel.