OPEC+ Risks Triggering Another Oil Price Slump
It will be tempting to start easing production cuts in August, but whether that’s the right answer could depend on Covid-19.
Producers could soon be opening the taps.
Photographer: Haidar Mohamed Ali/AFP via Getty Images
OPEC+ oil ministers face a tricky decision when they meet on Wednesday to assess progress in the alliance’s unprecedented output cuts and recommend the next step in its attempt to rebalance the oil market and drain excess inventories. Get the decision wrong and they could send oil prices tumbling again.
This week’s meeting of the panel that reviews OPEC+’s progress won’t decide policy — that has to be done by the unanimous agreement of all the ministers. But it will make a recommendation and, with Saudi Arabia and Russia co-chairing the get-together, whatever they suggest is likely to become policy. So tomorrow’s meeting matters.