Iran Says Friday OPEC+ Meeting Unfruitful

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said that the joint ministerial meeting of the 14-state Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) plus 10 more friendly oil producers such as Russia (which together make up OPEC+) on Friday in Vienna did not bear any fruit as the participants failed to reach a unanimous decision.

It was a very difficult session, the worst in its history, and ended without any result, Namdar Zangeneh said, noting that production cut approved in December was not renewed at the meeting. The market needs production cut and agreement.

Six hours of private talks took place, but Russia and Saudi Arabia failed to reach a conclusion. Negotiations should be flexible, otherwise everybody will suffer, he said.

Namdar Zangeneh added that some OPEC members insisted that countries that were not members of the organization to participate in the production cut but they refused.

On Thursday, OPEC members issued a statement proposing to cut 1.5 million barrels of oil per day to prevent negative impacts of coronavirus outbreak on world markets.

“OPEC would agree to undergo 1 mbd of the cuts with non-OPEC producers cutting half a million of their output,” Namdar Zangeneh had said before the Friday meeting of the OPEC+.

Market analyzers hold that oil demand will suffer decline in the first quarter, as schools and offices close, airlines cancel flights worldwide and a growing number of people hunker down at home.

Most of the reduction in demand can be traced to China, where the coronavirus has caused an "unprecedented stoppage" of economic activity.