VIENNA: Despite a drop in oil prices to around $70 per barrel this week, OPEC and its allies are unlikely to settle on more oil production cuts at a meeting on Sunday, two sources from the alliance said on Friday, but a third added the conclusion was still up in the air.
Around 40% of the world’s crude is produced by OPEC+, a grouping of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia. Therefore, the organization’s political actions significantly influence oil prices, Reuters said.
When OPEC+ ministers meet on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Vienna (1200 GMT), two sources inside the organisation said they did not anticipate the group to agree to additional output curbs. OPEC ministers will first convene on Saturday at 11 a.m.
According to reports, those anticipated to arrive in Vienna later on Friday include the United Arab Emirates, Algeria’s energy ministers, and Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
As the economy’s outlook worsened, a number of OPEC+ countries said in April that they would make voluntary cutbacks starting in May, in addition to the 2 million barrels per day (bpd) that had been decided upon last year.
With ministerial bilateral meetings anticipated before to the meeting, another source stated that it was too early to predict the result of the Sunday meeting. According to a fourth source, the concept of formalising the voluntary cutbacks as an OPEC+ decision was being considered.
The surprise announcement in April helped drive oil prices about $9 per barrel higher to above $87 before receding to trade around $75 on Friday, under pressure from global economic growth and demand concerns.
Prince Abdulaziz told investors who he said were shorting the oil price to “watch out” last week, which many market observers saw as a threat of more supply cuts.
However, according to Russian media, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak later stated he did not anticipate any fresh actions from OPEC+ in Vienna.
