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Bloomberg
A meeting of Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of the Opec+ group recommended an oil production cut, but didn’t agree on how big any reduction should be.
The group secured Russia’s participation in six months of output curbs starting in January, Oman’s Oil Minister Mohammed Al Rumhy told reporters in Vienna as he left the meeting on Wednesday. Although the committee didn’t discuss specific cuts, there’s still time to agree on numbers and the final deal could remove about 1 million barrels a day from the market, he said.
Ministers from the core Opec group, which doesn’t include Russia, were set to meet on Thursday to seek a consensus on exactly who will cut and by how much. While Saudi Arabia, the group’s biggest producer will shoulder most of the burden, the kingdom wants commitments from other countries before committing to
a final deal.
Oil pared gains after the meeting finished to trade at $62.25 on Wednesday.
The last time the Opec+ group agreed to curtail output, in late 2016, it settled on a combined 1.8 million-barrel-a-day reduction. In preparatory meetings ahead of this week’s summit, delegates have said a cut of as much as 1.3 million barrels a day next year is needed as demand growth slows and US shale production surges.