Opec, other producers meet today to discuss oil market

Opec member countries are meeting today in a conference call with Oman, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to discuss the oil market situation, Opec delegates told Argus.

Countries are discussing whether to bring forward the start date for production cuts, but no decisions will be made today, delegates said. Russia was not present in the meeting.

Opec+ countries agreed on 12 April to reduce output by 9.7mn b/d for two months from 1 May, with most members cutting from an October 2018 baseline, in an effort to stabilise the market from the demand hit arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Opec daily basket crude price dropped to $14.19/bl yesterday, over $4bl lower than the previous trading day and the lowest in the organisation's records that go back to 2003. The record low is a reminder that the problem of oversupply and rapidly depleting storage space — which helped drive yesterday's historic descent into negative territory for Nymex WTI crude futures — is not confined to the US. The Opec basket is made up of 13 crude grades from each of the organisation's member countries.

By Rowena Edwards, Nader Itayim and Ruxandra Iordache