Opec has completed its 175th meeting without announcing any new deal in crude output reduction.
Members of Opec have tentatively agreed to cut output but are holding off on a final decision before further discussions with 11 non-Opec producers led by Russia on Friday, according to Upstream, a sister publication of TradeWinds.
A final announcement is expected on Friday.
Before the meeting started, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih had said that the largest producer in Opec was hoping for consensus on a production cut to help balance global supply and demand.
With rising supply from the US and elsewhere, international oil prices have dropped by nearly 30% sine early October.
“I’ve heard everything from 500,000 to 1.5 million [barrels per day]…I think one million would be adequate. Because there are declines happening involuntarily so that needs to be considered,” al-Falih said.
Asked on the likelihood of Russia cutting, the Saudi minister said: “I think in principle…it’s willing to cut, I think the question is how much and when and how it will be distributed.”
“[Russia] has some internal issues that it needs to work out and we will hear from them tomorrow. They are still considering a number of options.”
Al-Falih said, however, that Russia is only “one variable in a very complex formula”.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that by Russia agreeing everything else falls into place.”
Tanker industry participants have been keenly looking out for the results of meetings between Opec and the Russia-led producers, also known as the Opec+ group.
In late-2016, the Opec+ reached an agreement to reduce crude production by nearly 1.8 million bpd. This, coupled with large newbuilding tonnage, led to depressed tanker earnings for more than 18 months.
