OPEC and its allies considered how to respond to a plunge in oil prices, with Russia signaling for the first time it was open to Saudi Arabia’s push for an emergency meeting, Bloomberg reports.
Potential dates being discussed are Feb. 8-9 and Feb. 14-15, though for now the next regular meeting on March 5-6 remains on the schedule, a delegate said.
For days, the kingdom has been pressing to bring forward a meeting of the coalition, as the threat to demand from Asia’s coronavirus pushes prices to a six-month low. Russia has been rebuffing the requests and even on Friday said more time was needed to assess the situation, yet added it was willing to convene and even act if needed. OPEC is holding a meeting of technical representatives — the Joint Technical Committee — on Tuesday and Wednesday to assess the coronavirus’ effect on markets, according to delegates.
“In principle, we’re ready to react on such things,” Interfax reported Energy Minister Alexander Novak saying on Friday. “But for that we need to assess the situation more accurately, monitor how it will develop in coming days.”
Crude traded near $51 a barrel in New York on Friday after a slump of about 16% in January, leaving prices far below the levels most members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries need to cover government spending.
China is the oil market’s primary source of demand growth and measures taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus -- including a lock-down in one of the country’s major cities and the unprecedented extension of the Lunar New Year holiday -- could wipe out a big chunk of that additional consumption.
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