Opec’s April meeting has been canned

OPEC YESTERDAY scrapped its planned meeting in April and will decide instead whether to extend output cuts in June, once the market has assessed the impact of US sanctions on Iran and the crisis in Venezuela. A ministerial panel of Opec and its allies recommended that they cancel the extraordinary meeting scheduled for April 17 and 18 and hold the next regular talks on June 25 and 26. The energy minister of Opec’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, said the market was looking oversupplied until the end of the year, but that April would be too early for any decision on output policy. “The consensus we heard… is that April will be premature to make any production decision for the second half,” the Saudi minister, Khalid al-Falih, said. “As long as the levels of inventories are rising and we are far from normal levels, we will stay the course, guiding the market towards balance,” he added. The US has been increasing its oil exports in recent months while imposing sanctions on Opec members Venezuela and Iran in an effort to reduce their shipments to global markets.