Nations eye long-term oil deal: UAE

new delhi — Opec oil producers and their partners are trying to work out a structure for their proposed long-term agreement on oil supplies, the UAE minister of energy and industry said on Wednesday.

Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei also told Reuters on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in India that the agreement may not include a provision on cutting or increasing oil output.

Opec and its partners have extended the pact to cut supplies until the end of 2018 and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Reuters last month that Riyadh and Russia were considering a deal to extend their alliance for years or even decades. “We are now trying to put a structure, or a term sheet, or a charter around what is the scope of the group,” Al Mazrouei, whose country holds the Opec presidency this year, said.

The talks have raised the prospect that producers could extend tangible actions to prop up oil prices through supply cuts — or moderate them by pumping more — beyond this year’s expiry of the supply cut agreement.

But the minister, asked if the agreement would have such a provision, said it was not yet clear. “No, we need to wait until we agree with everyone what is going to be the charter,” he said. “What form, what shape, we’re not ready to discuss that now.”

He reiterated that producers aimed to draft the agreement by the end of this year. —