Iran Press/ Europe: The virtual meeting between OPEC and its allies scheduled for Monday has been postponed, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC, amid mounting tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The meeting will now “likely” be held on Thursday, sources said.
The Monday meeting was set after US President Donald Trump said to CNBC on Thursday that he expected Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to announce a deal to cut production by up to 15 million barrels, and that he had spoken to both countries’ leaders.
The delay is likely to hit oil prices next week following a record-setting comeback week for crude. The US oil surged 25% on Thursday for its best day on record and gained another 12% on Friday. It finished the week with a 32% surge, breaking a 5-week losing streak and posting its best weekly performance ever, back to the contract’s inception in 1983.
“It’s probably going to crater,” Again Capital’s John Kilduff said. “There was a lot of optimism priced into oil Thursday and Friday. With this new Saudi, Russia spat, it doesn’t look like it’s going to come together.”
Despite last week’s surge, West Texas Intermediate crude is still down nearly 40% in the last month on the heels of demand destruction from the coronavirus outbreak and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
A three-year pact between OPEC and Russia ended in March 2020 after Moscow refused to support deeper oil cuts and OPEC responded by removing all limits on its own production, and it caused Saudi Arabia and its partners to start an oil war against Russia with an unprecedented increase in oil production.
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