OPEC+ Delays Meeting to Friday

Business

July 2nd, 5:50am

London - Asharq Al-Awsat

The OPEC logo pictured ahead of an informal meeting between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Algiers, Algeria, September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina

OPEC+ delayed its ministerial meeting until Friday to hold more talks on oil output policy, OPEC+ sources said on Thursday. OPEC+ sources earlier said the plan, on which top OPEC+ producers Saudi Arabia and Russia had reached a preliminary agreement, would see output rise by 0.4 million bpd a month from August to December 2021 to meet rising global demand. Responding to oil demand destruction caused by the COVID crisis, OPEC+ had last year agreed to cut output by almost 10 million bpd from May 2020, with plans to phase out the curbs by the end of April 2022. Cuts now stand at about 5.8 million bpd. Moscow and Riyadh had also proposed extending the duration of cuts until the end of 2022 to avoid a new glut next year. An OPEC+ technical panel on Tuesday had said it expected oil demand to grow by 6 million bpd in 2021 but flagged risks of a glut in 2022, saying there were "significant uncertainties" including an uneven global recovery and rising cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3058216/opec-delays-meeting-friday