The OPEC+an alliance of 23 oil states headed by Saudi Arabia and Russiameets this Sunday in Vienna to assess whether the current situation of the world crude oil market requires a third readjustment of its pumping, after the two cuts adopted since last October.
The ministers of the sector of the thirteen members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will hold a prior meeting on Saturday, according to the group’s Viennese secretariat.
After OPEC+ surprised twice, last October and April, with strong and unexpected reductions in the oil offerthis Sunday’s appointment is surrounded by uncertainty and great expectations in the markets.
The cuts, of 2 million barrels per day (mbd) the first, and 1.6 mbd the second, had the desired effect of making “black gold” more expensive only in the very short term.
After marked rises, petroprices remained mainly on the bearish path, although they rose this Friday.
the barrel of Brent crudea reference in Europe, was trading around noon at US$75.25, while that of Texas intermediate oil (WTI), a benchmark in the US, was sold at US$71.06.
OPEC crude stood on Thursday at $72.79/barrel, its lowest value since March 20, according to data published today by the organization.
These prices have remained well below those above US$100/barrel that were a year ago, and they are not satisfying producers either.
Despite this, most analysts consider it unlikely that OPEC+, responsible for about 40% of world oil production, will adopt a new cutout of its pumping, although new surprises are not ruled out either.
In fact, OPEC has surprised again these days, although not the oil sector directly, with an unexpected turn in its dealings with the press, by sending individual invitations and “non-transferable” some journalists and exclude others.
While EFE, the French AFP, the German DPA or the Financial Times are among the invited media, journalists from Bloomberg, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal had not received invitations, at least until this Friday afternoon.
“They have not given us any explanation”, “we do not know the reason”, “perhaps Saudi Arabia intends to determine the narrative in this way”, some of them told EFE today, who have also traveled to Vienna to cover the important oil meeting.
In consultation with EFE, OPEC also declined to comment on this way of proceeding, completely unusual and not seen in the organization’s summits in the last quarter of a century.