Deal sought to stabilize global oil market

MOSCOW — Oil-producing countries including those of the OPEC cartel and Russia are trying to strike a global deal to pump less crude in a bid to limit a crash in prices that, while welcome for consumers, has been straining government budgets and pushed energy companies toward bankruptcy.

Thursday’s videoconference is part of a series of talks on stabilizing the market, where oil prices have more than halved since the start of the year amid a pricing war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The drop was intensified when the coronavirus pandemic caused a further plunge in the demand for oil as travel and business ground to a halt globally.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia will advocate for a global move that not only includes OPEC and Russia, which had coordinated production cuts for four years until they fell out spectacularly this year, but also the United States. The U.S. is the world’s top producer now and the slide in crude prices is causing huge financial damage to companies in the oil patch.

President Donald Trump has said that output could be cut by as much as 15 million barrels a day, or about 15% of global production, though experts say that is unlikely. Last week, President Vladimir Putin said he supported an overall cut of about 10 million barrels a day.

“We are ready for agreements with partners and within the framework of this mechanism — OPEC-plus — and we are ready for cooperation with the United States of America on this issue,” Putin said.

The oil market was oversupplied when Russia and OPEC failed to agree on output cuts in March. Analysts say Russia refused to back even a moderate cut because it would have helped U.S. energy companies, which were pumping at full capacity.