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OPEC+ ministers plan to hold their next meeting on Sunday to decide on output policy, three sources within the producers group told Reuters on Saturday.
The development comes after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reached a compromise last week in a dispute over OPEC+ policy, in a move that should unlock a deal to supply more crude to a tight oil market and cool soaring prices.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia and other allies, a group known as OPEC+, still needs to take a final decision on output policy after talks earlier this month were abandoned because of the dispute between Saudi and the UAE.
OPEC could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.
Sunday’s meeting will be held virtually as have all such discussions since last year.
See: OPEC leaves forecast for 2021 world oil-demand growth unchanged
Oil futures ended higher on Friday, but the U.S. benchmark logged its biggest weekly drop since March, pressured by the possibility of more crude supplies on the global market and risks to the demand outlook.
West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery CL00 CLQ21 tacked on 16 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $71.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after tapping an intraday low of $70.41. The U.S. benchmark ended down 3.7% for the week, marking the biggest weekly fall for a front-month contract contract since the week ended March 26, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
September Brent crude BRN00 BRNU21, the global benchmark, added 12 cents, or 0.2%, at $73.59 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, though still down 2.6% for the week, its biggest weekly slide since May.
“All signs indicate that OPEC+ is heading for a potential compromise agreement that will allow U.A.E. to secure a baseline adjustment, but other producers will undoubtedly seek similar treatment and potentially prolong the deliberations” heading into an August meeting, wrote analysts at RBC Capital Markets, in a note Friday.
OPEC+ last year agreed record output cuts of almost 10 million barrels per day (bpd) to cope with a pandemic-induced slump in demand, curbs which have been gradually relaxed since then and now stand at about 5.8 million bpd.
The dispute between Riyadh and the UAE spilled into the open after previous OPEC+ talks, with both airing concerns about details of a proposed deal that would have added an extra 2 million bpd to the market and extended the pact until end of 2022.
The objective was to ease upward pressure on oil prices that have recently climbed to 2-1/2 year highs.
