Oil: Opep and Russia fail to agree on production cuts

Text by: Isaure Hiace

No agreement after two days of meeting in Vienna, Austria, at the headquarters of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. This Thursday and this Friday the OPEC member countries led by Saudi Arabia and the partner countries of the cartel, led by Russia did not manage to get along. The former proposed a new drastic cut in production of 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, a proposal rejected by Russia.

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From our correspondent in Vienna,

The 13 OPEC member countries, de facto led by Saudi Arabia, agreed on Thursday to offer their allies, Russia in mind, an additional collective cut of 1.5 million barrels per day to stop the fall in prices. To convince them, the cartel asked them to support only a third of all new cuts, or 500,000 barrels per day. But it was already too much for Russia, the world's second largest producer of crude, which refused the proposal on Friday.

A further drop in production was however necessary in the eyes of OPEC members because oil revenues are suffering from the coronavirus epidemic which is notably slowing the economy of China, the world's largest importer of oil. The failure of the negotiations in Vienna therefore risks increasing the rout of the courses and could also weaken the alliance sealed three years ago between OPEC and its 10 partners led by Russia.

→ Read also: Coronavirus: OPEC worries about oil prices

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• Oil
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• coronavirus

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