Saudi Arabia won’t meet with non-Opec oil producers

“We met in Doha recently”, Novak told reporters. “Everyone knows that the stakes are high”.

“It would not be fair for us to cut oil output”.

As a result, Barclays said that some form of production cut deal was likely, but the bank added that any such agreement might have little impact on markets. Oil has risen 6.9 percent in NY this week, the biggest two-day gain since September.

“By cutting the cartel’s output by 1mn bopd, or less than 3%, global oil prices need only to increase by USD2/bbl from current levels to offset any potential revenue declines”. That is more than 1.1 million barrels a day below OPEC’s October output and at the top end of a range of cuts the cartel promised in September.

Technical experts from member countries met in Vienna this week to finalize the details of the cuts. A surplus of crude in storage globally has been a major factor in sending oil prices collapsing over the last two years.

Following the latest Iraqi comment on the OPEC deal and the EIA report of a 1.3-million-barrel decline in crude oil stockpiles for the week to November 18, oil prices erased earlier losses and were trading nearly flat as of 11:25 AM (EST).

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $47.59 per barrel, down 37 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last settlement. That is at odds with the countries’ long-held position that they should be exempt from the cuts.

“Our view is primarily based on the belief that the single most important country in OPEC, Saudi Arabia, wants it, and that the ability of a number of suspected cheaters to cheat is constrained”, they said in a note.

Iraq’s oil minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi has insisted his nation should be allowed to maintain its September output of 4.7 million barrels per day.

While a ceiling for overall OPEC production is expected to be agreed in the anticipated meeting, it is still unclear whether quotas would be set per each member state.

A production cap would mean Russian Federation pumping 200,000 to 300,000 barrels a day less than planned in 2017, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.

“You had President Putin clearly speaking yesterday about this agreement to freeze”, Waya said.

OPEC has denied the reports, with Libya OPEC Governor Mohamed Oun saying Tuesday’s meeting in Vienna ended with a broad consensus that will be presented to OPEC’s ministers at the organization’s meeting on November 30.