Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, in his first meeting as energy minister, left reporters on Thursday with a promise of “beautiful news tomorrow.” His comments were the culmination of a long day that yielded almost nothing concrete for oil traders wondering if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies would take action to prevent a crude surplus coming back in 2020.
Earlier in the day, ministers agreed to deepen their output-cuts target by 500,000 barrels a day, delegates said. A reduction of that magnitude would be largely symbolic, simply formalizing the extra supply reductions the group has already been making for most of this year, rather than taking barrels off the market.
Saudi Arabia’s new production target was likely to be above 10.1 million barrels a day, said one delegate, slightly higher than recent levels.
Even so, the cartel couldn’t find a way to divide the adjustment between members before further discussions with partners from the wider OPEC+ group on Friday, delegates said. The new production target for Iraq, which has the worst record of implementing the existing cuts of any major oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was a particular sticking point, delegates said.
