Saudi Arabia stood firm on an OPEC agreement.

Asked by the official Saudi Press Agency SPA agency about the recent fall in free market oil prices, Oil Minister Hisam Nazer said Saudi Arabia “is fully adhering by the . . . accord and it will never sell its oil at prices below the pronounced prices under any circumstance.” Saudi Arabia was a main architect of the December accord, under which the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to lower its total oil output ceiling by 7.25% to 15.8 million barrels per day and return to fixed prices of around $18 a barrel. Nazer said contacts among members of OPEC showed that they all wanted to stick to the accord.