What to expect from the OPEC meeting that is currently underway in Vienna?

[Grace A]

[Ignatius Bose]

The 14 member countries representing OPEC and the 10 non-OPEC countries led by Russia are meeting on 1st and 2nd July in Vienna in a bid to extend their deal to cut oil output amid slumping global demand. According to the Saudi energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, the summit will call upon member states to prolong production cuts for the next nine months, even as the Saudis and Russia agreed to slash output by 1.2 million barrels, in line with the earlier agreement.

In the previous summit held in December, OPEC and its allies agreed to a six-month arrangement to cut oil output which led to a more than 20% surge in crude prices going into April this year. However, with the global economy slowing down on the back of the Sino-US trade tensions, oil prices have also fallen, largely ignoring the growing tensions in the Middle East following Iran’s downing of a US drone.

WTI crude for August delivery (CLQ19) was up by 2.7% to $60.05 a barrel on Monday while Brent crude futures (BRNQ19) was mostly unchanged at $66.55 a barrel.