The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 'OPEC+' (OPEC+), a consultative body such as Russia, will hold their first face-to-face meeting in Vienna, Austria next week since the COVID-19 pandemic.



According to Bloomberg News, the OPEC Secretariat announced on the 1st (local time) that "the regular OPEC+ meeting will be held in a face-to-face format at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna on the 5th."



It is the first time since March 2020, when OPEC+, made up of 23 major oil producing countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, held a face-to-face meeting.



In the meantime, monthly meetings have been held online, and non-face-to-face meetings are expected to remain at least until the end of this year, the news agency said.



It is known that OPEC+ will discuss measures to reduce oil production in earnest at this regular meeting.



The price of Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil prices, soared to over $125 a barrel after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February, but then dropped to $85 a barrel due to aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks around the world and economic slowdowns in the United States and China.



Major oil producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are suffering huge losses from such a fall in international oil prices.



Accordingly, OPEC+ cut crude oil production at the last meeting to stabilize the oil market.



OPEC+ reached an agreement at its September 5 meeting to cut its October oil production target by 100,000 barrels per day.



Global investment bank JP Morgan Chase and others have predicted that OPEC+ may have to cut production by at least 500,000 barrels per day to prevent falling oil prices.



Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC, a global financial institution, even predicted that the production cut could reach 1 million barrels.



The day before Russia announced annexation of four Ukrainian territories, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak.



One day after the news of sanctions against Novak, a key OPEC+ key figure, the OPEC Secretariat announced that it would hold its first face-to-face meeting in Vienna since 2020.



The OPEC Secretariat predicted that the notice period was so short that it would be difficult for all countries to send a delegation.



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