Russia for the first time has chaired the OPEC+ ministerial meeting alone without its co-chair Saudi Arabia amid the reports of Riyadh ditching its seat in favor of the United Arab Emirates due to disagreements over the terms of the oil cuts deal, multiple sources told Sputnik on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2020) Russia for the first time has chaired the OPEC+ ministerial meeting alone without its co-chair Saudi Arabia amid the reports of Riyadh ditching its seat in favor of the United Arab Emirates due to disagreements over the terms of the oil cuts deal, multiple sources told Sputnik on Thursday.
The OPEC+ meetings are usually chaired by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud.
"Yes, Novak is the only chair of the OPEC+ meeting today," one of the sources said, while the other source in the delegations said that the Saudi energy minister was not leading the discussion as he always had done before.
The OPEC+ alliance has struggled to reach consensus since the informal talks started last weekend. According to media reports, the talks were complicated by the standoff between two historic allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Abu Dhabi reportedly is displeased with the steady underperformance of some OPEC+ members such as Iraq and Russia, while the UAE itself is pressured to showcase 100 percent compliance. The Emirates also calls for the underperformers to continue slashing more oil output to offset previous shortcomings.
The Saudi energy minister has reportedly offered his co-chair seat to Emirati Energy Minister Suhail Mazrouei, but the latter declined the offer.
