Oil ministers of OPEC and non-OPEC countries – the group known as OPEC+ – will next meet in Vienna on March 6 as initially planned, a senior Russian energy ministry official has confirmed to Reuters.
OPEC, Russia and other producers had mulled bringing forward their next meeting to February from the beginning of March after oil demand was hit by coronavirus outbreak in China.
Pavel Sorokin, Russian deputy energy minister, told Reuters the ministry still expected the meeting to take place on March 6, as announced by OPEC in December.
Since January 1, OPEC+ has instated a deal to cut output by 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) to help the market, while Saudi Arabia has also committed to voluntary cuts of 400,000 bpd.
Last week OPEC dramatically lowered its forecast for oil demand growth this year, citing the coronavirus as the “major factor” behind its decision.
The group downwardly revised its outlook for global oil demand growth to 0.99 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020 – down by 0.23 million bpd from the previous month’s estimate.
