At the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting on Thursday, Saudi Arabia, the dominant power of the cartel, is expected to use the carrot and stick policy during negotiations with other members of the oil cartel to defend oil prices.

A report by the Bloomberg website said that during the first meeting attended by Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman since he took office, he would be willing to raise production slightly if other countries continue to tolerate the current production volume, according to OPEC members.

OPEC meets on Thursday in Vienna, followed by a meeting with Russia and others in the group known as OPEC Plus on Friday.

The results of the meeting remained open on Wednesday evening, as the exact terms of any proposed deal were unclear, the report said.

Iraq, the country with the worst record of compliance with the deal, has spoken of a 400,000 bpd production cut.

Instead, the Saudi minister said instead that he would prefer to extend the current plan, which ends in March 2020, until the end of next year.

The report added that Saudi Arabia is already pumping significantly below the official level of production set by OPEC. It is likely that few OPEC countries believe that countries such as Iraq, Nigeria or even Russia have not complied with the deal so far will start to implement the agreement.

do not forgive
"The kingdom has told OPEC that it will no longer tolerate non-compliance with the agreement. If it continues, Saudi Arabia could easily increase production," Bloomberg's report quoted senior oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd. Amrita Sen as saying.

Reuters quoted sources as saying that OPEC and allied producers led by Russia are approaching the agreement on Thursday to further reduce oil supplies to support oil prices and prevent a glut.

The report said that the alliance "OPEC Plus" concluded an agreement to reduce production by about 1.2 million barrels per day since the beginning of the year in order to eliminate the surplus and support crude oil prices.

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Bloomberg says that the oil market is likely to see a difficult period next year, as slower demand growth and expansion of production of rival countries could create an additional surplus to push world prices down to about $ 50 a barrel.

The report warns that the price of $ 50 is too low for the budgets of most OPEC countries, and could damage the initial public offer of state oil company Saudi Aramco.

The Bloomberg report likely that the current meeting will lead to the extension of the current oil production agreement, knowing that the price of Brent crude fell 21 cents to $ 62.79 a barrel on Thursday morning.

Doubts about Iraq
The report ruled out that Iraq agrees to deeper cuts in production ratios. It has already increased its output since last year's deal. As a result, there is a lot of uncertainty about whether it will indeed cut production.

Accordingly, the 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) reduction offer proposed by Iraq will not make any real change in the actual output because the rest of OPEC is already pumping below the official level, according to the report.

Throughout the deal, Saudi Arabia, which wants to set an example, has pumped well below its share, but other countries such as Angola, Venezuela and Mexico have not been able to continue to comply with the agreement because of many factors related to mismanagement, as well as sanctions.

The Kingdom's additional efforts have compensated for the laxness of many other countries in implementing the production cut agreement.

On average this year, Russia has implemented only 72% of the cuts it has pledged, while Nigeria and Iraq have already increased their production, according to data released by the International Energy Agency. According to Bloomberg, Saudi Arabia could easily cut official allowable production by 300,000 barrels per day, without affecting its actual production.