<article><p><i>Updates with details throughout</i></p><p class="lead">Opec+ countries have modified their planned crude output cut to 9.7mn b/d in May-June, after reaching an agreement with Mexico at an emergency meeting yesterday. But some key members of the group have said they are willing to make additional reductions on top of that.</p><p>Last week the Opec+ alliance struck a conditional deal to take 10mn b/d off the market in May and June, moderating to 8mn b/d in the second half of the year and 6mn b/d in 2021 and early 2022.</p><p>The deal was not finalised at the time, as Mexico rejected its 400,000 b/d share of the cut over the initial May-June period, as well as the October 2018 baseline allocated to most Opec+ members.</p><p>At another emergency video conference yesterday, the group agreed that Mexico will reduce output by just 100,000 b/d over the two-month period from an October 2018 baseline. The US will make up for the remaining 300,000 b/d on Mexico's behalf, Opec delegates said. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week that the US had agreed to help his country with its Opec+ commitment, although Washington appears to be suggesting 250,000 b/d in promised cuts from the US will come from organic production declines.</p><p>After the emergency meeting, Opec+ production cuts were adjusted to 7.7mn b/d over July-December and to 5.8mn b/d from January 2021-April 2022, according to an Opec+ statement. Output will be reduced from each member country's October 2018 baseline, with the exception of Saudi Arabia and Russia, which will have a 11mn b/d reference level. </p><p>Opec+ will review extensions to the agreement in December 2021. The group said it will next hold a videoconference on 10 June to "determine further actions, as needed to balance the market".</p><p>Beyond formal deal commitments, Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that Opec+ members Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait agreed during the meeting that they will make a collective reduction of 2mn b/d in addition to their allocated cuts in May-June.</p><p>He also said that producing countries outside the Opec+ group discussed reducing output by a total of 3.7mn b/d over the next year during last week's G20 energy ministers' meeting. That figure includes the US' 300,000 b/d cut on Mexico's behalf. The G20 energy ministers ended their meeting on 10 April without delivering a concrete pledge on output reduction. But they did assure Opec+ of anticipated declines.</p><p>The breakdown of G20 contributions has not yet been decided, according to one Opec+ delegate. And the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which oversaw Opec+ compliance with the previous output restraint deals, will not monitor G20 reductions, the delegate added.</p><p>The Opec+ group has nevertheless reaffirmed and extended the mandate of the JMMC to "closely review general market conditions, oil production levels and the level of conformity", with assistance from the Opec+ Joint Technical Committee (JTC). </p><p>US president Donald Trump said he spoke yesterday with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz. Calling the agreement "a great deal for all", Trump said on Twitter it "will save hundreds of thousands of energy jobs" in the US.</p><p class="bylines"><i>By Rowena Edwards, Nader Itayim and Ruxandra Iordache</i></p></article>
