MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2020) The 179th Meeting of the OPEC Conference, as well as the talks in the OPEC+ format, will be held via videoconference on Saturday and will focus on the oil producers' response to the energy crisis.
Initially, both meetings were scheduled to take place next week, however the Russian Energy Ministry's official spokesperson confirmed to Sputnik on Friday that both the OPEC meeting and the OPEC+ talks would be held on Saturday.
The participants should decide whether to extend, or perhaps even increase, the May-June quotas for oil production, which stand at 9.7 million barrels a day. The oil producers do indeed consider extending the 9.7 million barrels per day cut by one or two months, with one month being a more likely option, two sources in the OPEC+ delegations told Sputnik on Friday.
The other option on the agenda of the meetings is sticking to the initial April agreements, which state that the signatories should adhere to the 7.7 million barrels per day reduction, which starts on July 1 and will be effective until December 31.
The OPEC+ countries, as well as oil producers from a wider G20 group of nations, such as the United States, Brazil and Canada, reached the oil production cut deal in mid-April. The deal envisages a reduction in oil production by the OPEC+ group by 9.7 million barrels per day for two months starting on May 1, and possibly up to 15 million barrels per day, with the G20 nations taken into account.
According to the April deal, oil production will be cut by 7.7 million barrels per day for six months starting July 1. Beginning in January, the output will be reduced by 5.8 million barrels per day until April 2022.
