Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Saudi Arabian counterpart Khalid Al-Falih are due to hold bilateral talks on Wednesday morning before taking part in the OPEC/non-OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee’s meeting in Vienna, sources in the delegations told TASS.
The talks will be held just a few hours before the committee’s meeting, which is expected to outline the guidelines for the overall oil output level in 2019.
The negotiations will be challenging since Novak and Al-Falih have been discussing cutting the oil output since November. According to TASS, the two key oil producing countries have different stances on the volume to be curtailed. Saudi Arabia suggested rolling back the oil output by at least 1 mln barrels per day, while Russia is only ready for a symbolic cut.
The OPEC plus is unlikely to reach a consensus until Russia supports the oil output cut, participants say on the sidelines of the meeting. Some of them believe that no deal on curtailing oil output will be achieved.
The meeting of the Monitoring Committee, which consists of six out of 25 participating states, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Moscow Time (12:00 GMT).