To address the slump in oil prices, efforts from the OPEC and Russia have been complicated by mutual animosity and the US reluctance to join the action. Global fuel demand has plunged as much as 30 percent as the economic activity curbed by the coronavirus pandemic.
For many producers, including the shale oil industry in the US, crude prices have plunged below the cost of production.
A deal negotiated with Riyadh and Moscow could lead to output cuts of as much as 10 percent to 15 percent of global supplies, Donald Trump said last week. A deal to deep output cut would depend on the US and other producers outside OPEC+, signalled by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
To mandate cuts in domestic supply, Trump’s administration has shown no appetite. Without government action, the US Department of Energy said the country’s output was already falling.
Russia and Saudi Arabia have not publicly indicated any agreement on output cuts. Both countries also have not unveiled how a deep cut would be distributed among the OPEC, Russia and other oil producers.
There will be a meeting of energy ministers from the G20 on Friday after the OPEC+ meeting via video conference on Thursday.
