OPEC raises stakes with Russia, seeks biggest oil cut since 2008 crisis - Reuters

OPEC raises stakes with Russia, seeks biggest oil cut since 2008 crisis - Reuters:

OPEC pushed on Thursday for a bigger-than-expected oil output cut to support prices that have been hit by the coronavirus outbreak, effectively presenting its non-OPEC partners with an ultimatum to back the move or face a price collapse. 



OPEC’s proposal to curb supplies by an extra 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2020 was a surprise, given the group was expected to propose cuts of 1 million bpd and, hours earlier on Thursday, had said curbs should be limited to the second quarter.

But an unusual informal meeting of OPEC ministers in a Vienna hotel on Thursday evening announced that the group now wanted the cut - already the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis - to run until the end of year.

Russia and Kazakhstan, both members of the broader grouping known as OPEC+ which meets in Vienna on Friday, said they had not yet agreed to a deeper cut, raising the risk of a collapse in cooperation that has propped up crude prices since 2016.