Despite the uncertainty on the oil market amid the coronavirus outbreak, there is a common understanding among the OPEC+ coalition that ministers do not need to move forward their meeting planned for the first week of March, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters in Moscow on Thursday. Faced with a slump in global oil demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, the producers of the OPEC+ production cut pact were considering moving the March 5-6 meeting to some date in February, in order to react to the depressed demand and the slide in oil prices. The OPEC+ group’s joint technical committee (JTC) issued a proposal on February 8 that the producers extend the cuts as-is until the end of 2020 and deepen those cuts in the second quarter in response to the fact that the coronavirus “has had a negative impact on oil demand and oil markets.” Russia, however, […]