As we went to press on Thursday 9 April, OPEC+ member countries and some other oil-producing countries were still discussing a potential reduction in world oil production of up to ten million barrels per day.
If many doubts remain as to whether a final agreement can be reached, the parties could reach an interim agreement, pending the G20 Energy Ministers' meeting on Friday 10 April (see EUROPE 12463/26).
The United States and Canada did not participate in Thursday's virtual meeting, but will obviously take part in the G20 one.
Ahead of the meeting, however, the Russian President's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Moscow wanted joint coordinated action to stabilise the black gold markets. Thus, even though Russia indicated on Thursday that it was ready to cut production by 1.6 million barrels a day, it may oppose the finalisation of an agreement that does not include the United States.
These two successive meetings were organised in response to the steep fall in the price per barrel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the failure of previous negotiations between OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and Russia (see EUROPE 12461/32). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)