VIENNA, June 4 Saudi Arabia has tried to negotiate with African countries to reduce their oil production quotas, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources.
“Saudi Arabia … demanded that small African producers reduce their quotas. At the same time, the kingdom discussed with the United Arab Emirates, also an influential member of the group (producers of OPEC and OPEC + — ed.), The possibility of increasing production (UAE — ed.)» , — writes the publication, referring to their interlocutors.
It is noted that the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Saturday, June 3, invited some African delegates to his hotel in Vienna and told them that their production quotas would be reduced. «They left the meeting without a deal,» the story said.
A series of meetings of the OPEC+ countries will be held on Sunday in Vienna to discuss the situation on the oil market and the future of the agreement to limit production. A meeting of the OPEC conference took place the day before. As Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hussein Zamaninia told reporters, the countries of the organization did not discuss options for reducing oil production at it, since this is the topic of the meeting of the entire OPEC + alliance.
Although no changes were initially expected in the terms of the oil deal, on Friday, Reuters reported citing sources that OPEC+, among other options, is discussing an additional 1 million barrels per day cut in production.
OPEC+ countries are now cutting oil production by 2 million barrels per day until the end of 2023 as part of the deal. At the same time, in April, a number of alliance member countries, including Saudi Arabia, announced that from May they would voluntarily reduce production in excess of quotas — by another 1.16 million barrels per day — also until the end of the year. Russia, in turn, extended the voluntary cut by 500 million barrels per day, which began in March, for this period. «https://ria.ru/20230403/neft-1862705624.html» data-title=»Germany reacted to OPEC+'s decision to cut oil production»>