Opec may reach a deal on modest output hike
london — Opec members are discussing a compromise agreement that would see an oil production increase of between 300,000 and 600,000 barrels a day over the next few months, according to people briefed on the talks.
While Iran said on Sunday it’s opposed to any increase to current quotas, officials from a number of other countries are optimistic that an agreement can be won for a relatively modest hike at this week’s meeting in Vienna, the people said, asking not to be named discussing private conversations.
Brent crude erased losses, gaining as much as 85 cents to $74.29 a barrel at 9:46am in London. The compromise output boost, if agreed, would be smaller than the 1.5 million-barrel a day quota increase that Russia has proposed.
Opec officials are also working on putting the cooperation between the group, Russia and other oil producers — the so-called Opec+ group currently comprising 24 nations — on a permanent footing. That would be a major diplomatic breakthrough for Riyadh and Moscow after just two years of cooperation on oil policy.
The prospect of binding Russia, the world’s largest exporter after Saudi Arabia, more closely to Opec might help persuade Iran and Ven- ezuela, another skeptic about the need for an increase, to back higher production in the second half of the year.
In the run-up to meetings of Opec and its allies in Vienna this week, several nations have floated plans for production increases, but no consensus has emerged for what’s likely to be a fractious meeting. — Bloomberg