OPEC + Resumes Talks on Oil Policy in 2021 Amid Disputes

OPEC and Russia will resume talks Thursday (December 3) in an effort to define policies for 2021 after an initial round of discussions this week failed to reach a compromise on how to cope with weak oil demand amid a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was widely expected that OPEC and its allies, under what is known as OPEC +, would extend existing production cuts of 7.7 million barrels per day, or 8% of global supplies, until at least March 2021.

But after hopes of speedy approval of vaccines to prevent the virus resulted in a rise in oil prices at the end of November, several producers began to question the need to tighten oil policy, which Saudi Arabia, a prominent member of OPEC, supports.

Sources in OPEC+ told Reuters that Russia, Iraq, Nigeria and the UAE have, to some extent, expressed a desire to supply the market with more oil in 2021.