(Bloomberg) -- Oil ministers are once again converging on OPEC’s Vienna secretariat as the group’s partner countries meet to ratify Monday’s decision to keep cutting production.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries settled on maintaining quotas for another nine months, with de facto leader Saudi Arabia committing to deeper cuts than its cap requires. The rollover of curbs into a fourth year shows producers are ever more bogged down in a struggle to wrest control of the market from the booming U.S. shale industry.
Iran Says Deeper Cuts May Be Needed (10:51 a.m. CET)
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh suggested Tuesday that OPEC+ may need to make deeper oil-output cuts than the current 1.2 million barrels a day at some point as it continues to lose market share to U.S. shale. Iran itself -- subject to American sanctions -- is working “day and night” to find ways to export its crude, Zanganeh said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Vienna.
Ministers Confident of Deal (10:14 a.m. CET)
OPEC ministers arriving for talks with their non-OPEC allies are universally confident that they will finalize a nine-month extension to production cuts. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih is “absolutely” sure that non-members including Russia will ratify the accord, while his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates Suhail Al Mazrouei told reporters he is “very confident.” Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Co., is sure there will be a deal.
