OPEC+ Sends More Signals It’ll Stick With Current Oil Cuts
- First-half surplus offset by deficit in latter part of year
- Advisory committee didn’t discuss deeper curbs on Thursday
OPEC and its allies sent more signals that they’ll stick with existing output cuts at their meeting next week.
A key advisory committee in Vienna heard that the oil market will be balanced in 2020 if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintains current production levels, and it didn’t discuss deeper cuts, according to delegates. In Moscow, industry executives who met with Energy Minister Alexander Novak gave no indication they want to change their supply agreement with the cartel.
That still leaves OPEC and its allies including Russia and Kazakhstan, collectively known as OPEC+, facing some difficult choices when they meet in the Austrian capital on Dec. 5 to 6. Even if the group doesn’t need to go beyond its existing output curbs, supply and demand data suggest it will at least need to prolong the supply agreement past its current end-March expiry.