Media: Russia Might Advocate the OPEC + Deal Toughening

During the June OPEC + meeting, Russia might propose maintaining the current level of reduction in oil production until September instead of mitigating it. Citing three sources in the oil industry, Kommersant informed. According to April agreements, from May to July, the OPEC + countries should reduce production by almost 9.7 million barrels per day. Then it was supposed to reduce the production reduction volume to 8 million barrels per day until the end of 2020 and to 6 million by May 2021. Under the transaction terms, Russia is to reduce oil production to 8.5 million barrels per day in May-July. According to the publication, the Ministry of Energy is discussing quotas preserving for another two months. According to one of the newspaper’s interlocutors, Russia's position tightening is due to pressure from its main partner under the agreement of Saudi Arabia, which is unhappy with the current level of oil prices despite the fact that demand began to recover due to coronavirus restrictions gradual lifting. The best oil price for the kingdom is $ 80 per barrel. At the same time, in May, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait agreed to further reduce production beyond OPEC + obligations. After that, it could be assumed that “new concessions will be required from Russia,” Kommersant wrote. Russian oil companies do not have a single position on the current quotas’ extension, the newspaper noted.