Russia kills prospect of early Opec+ meeting

Russia has ended any prospect of the Opec and non-Opec group meetings taking place earlier than scheduled. Energy minister Alexander Novak said today that the market situation does not warrant this.

The Opec+ group had debated bringing forward upcoming ministerial meetings in Vienna into February from the scheduled 5-6 March, to address the fall in oil prices caused by the effects on demand of the coronavirus. One potential date was 14-15 February. Russia's stance today has removed what slim chance remained of the meetings being moved.

There is "nothing extraordinary to move the meeting", Novak said, according to Russian news agency Tass. A Mideast Gulf Opec delegate said the meetings will happen as originally planned.

The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the Opec+ group has recommended that the group cut oil production by an additional 600,000 b/d in the second quarter this year, revert to their existing production cuts in the third quarter and maintain them through to the end of the year. Russia is yet to endorse this proposal.

"We will be watching how the situation develops, what will be happening in the market, what forecasts we will have by that time [time of the Vienna meetings]," Novak said. "The situation is quite uncertain and it changes quickly. What are the prices now? Everyone was expecting that they would fall, but you see they are at $59/bl. They have risen by almost 10pc from their low [level]".

By Ben Winkley, Anastasia Krasinskaya and Nader Itayim