Volume 94 / Number 230 / November 30, 2016 / Prices effective November 29, 2016
OPEC output deal in the balance as ministers trade proposals
Vienna—OPEC delegations spent much of Tuesday exchanging and negotiating myriad output proposals,as the producer group attempted to hammer out a stubbornly elusive production agreement on the eve of a closely watched ministerial meeting.
■■1.2 million b/d collective cut on table
■■Iran insists it will not lower production
■■Breakfast talks scheduled before Wednesday meeting
Amid sniping between Saudi Arabia and Iran, OPEC ministers on Wednesday will consider a recommendation to cut 1.2 million b/d from its collective October output level,as determined by secondary sources, except for Angola,Libya and Nigeria, people familiar with the proposal told S&P Global Platts.
The proposal, reached after 11 hours of negotiations Monday by a technical committee, is sure to encounter resistance from Iran, which has insisted that it will not freeze or cut output until it reaches its pre-sanctions levels of some 4 million b/d.
A source familiar with the negotiations said that Iran’s resistance to cutting, while “logical,” has become “tricky” for OPEC to deal with due to geopolitics.
Rival Saudi Arabia, which has taken much of Iran’s pre-sanctions market share, has said that any OPEC cut burdens should be shared equitably and transparently among the group.