The oil ministers of the “OPEC Plus” alliance started their meeting at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna to discuss production policy.
Reuters quoted sources as saying that the members of the coalition – which includes OPEC countries and allies led by Russia – are discussing an agreement that may include new quotas for countries, and extend to the end of next year, with further production cuts.
The sources pointed out that the new cuts may reach one million barrels per day, with the drop in oil prices towards the level of $70 per barrel, amid oversupply.
The coalition is currently applying cuts of two million barrels per day, in addition to voluntary cuts announced by several countries – last April – amounting to 1.6 million barrels per day.
In the event that the new cuts are approved, the total will rise to 4.66 million barrels per day, equivalent to 4.5% of the total daily global demand for oil.
OPEC Plus pumps about 40% of global crude production. Which means that its decisions may have a significant impact on oil prices.
Al-Jazeera correspondent Ayman Al-Zubair said that there is ambiguity about what decisions may come out of today’s meeting, and he added that there are a number of possible scenarios regarding production policy, most notably: maintaining the current production capacity in view of expectations about high Chinese demand, and the positive messages left by the agreement regarding Raising the US debt ceiling, or reducing production by an additional million barrels, but this scenario faced opposition from Russia and some African countries.
The price of Brent barrel reached $76 per barrel, while the price of West Texas Intermediate crude was $71, far from the peak recorded in March 2022 at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which amounted to about $140.
2023-06-04 13:17:52
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