After five days of difficult talks that exposed new rifts between core members, OPEC+ agreed to gently ease output cuts next year. The deal appeared to satisfy the oil market and most of the cartel’s members, but strained the group’s unity and set up testing times ahead. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, de facto leader of the group alongside his Russian counterpart, was frank that the deal was hard-won.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman
Photographer: Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images
“It’s very excruciating, it’s very tiring,” Prince Abdulaziz told reporters after the meeting on Thursday. “If you want to work with 23 countries, you have to be very congenial to the idea of flexibility.”
After a split emerged between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the cartel couldn’t agree on what had been widely expected before this week: a full three-month delay to the scheduled January output increase. Instead ministers resolved to add 500,000 barrels a day of production to the market next month, then hold monthly meetings to decide on subsequent moves.
Alexander Novak
Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg
The accord could add a maximum of 2 million barrels a day to the market, but ministers could equally decide to cut production again if needed, said Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. The maximum change in any month will be 500,000 barrels a day in either direction.