After speculation that OPEC+ would move up its scheduled March 5-6 meeting to this month in response to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on global energy markets, the group has now said the meeting will go-ahead as scheduled. The decision not to change the date of the meeting comes as Russia continues to mull whether it will agree to an additional 600K b/d in cuts recommended by OPEC+'s Joint Technical Committee (JTC) to the current 1.7MM-b/d OPEC+ cuts in response to COVID-19 through HI 2020. Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who had been calling for the OPEC+ meeting to take place this month, said on Feb. 19 that he has yet to be able to convince the Russians to "act immediately" with regards to the deeper recommended cuts. An OPEC+ source also told S&P Global Platts on Feb. 19, "The Russian strategy was to delay for some clearer data that might mitigate the need for a cut." On Feb. 20. Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said, "We are discussing, we still have two weeks to announce [our position]. We will be watcliing how the situation develops, what will be happening in the market, what forecasts we will have by that rime [time of the Vienna meetings]. The situation is quite uncertain and it changes quickly. What are the prices now? Everyone was expecting that they would fall, but you see they are at $59/bbl. They have risen by almost 10% from their low [level]."
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