OPEC+ Silence Has Oil Market Second-Guessing Next Supply Move - Bloomberg

OPEC+ Silence Has Oil Market Second-Guessing Next Supply Move - Bloomberg

OPEC and its allies kept oil-watchers guessing about their next move, after a day of preliminary talks offered few clues as to whether the market will get the April supply increase it’s been expecting.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, leaders of group, held bilateral talks on Wednesday, seeking common ground as Riyadh urges caution and Moscow presses to raise output, a delegate said. While OPEC+ is still widely expected to revive some of the 7 million barrels a day they’ve idled, a preliminary meeting of ministers earlier in the day didn’t get into specifics.

The trajectory of oil prices in the coming months now rests on the outcome of Thursday’s full meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. Crude could move higher if the group doesn’t deliver all of the extra barrels the market needs to fuel the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“OPEC+ may raise by only 0.9 million barrels a day in April,” said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst and co-founder at Energy Aspects Ltd. Anything less than the 1.4 million barrel-a-day hike that had previously been expected “should be viewed as bullish by the market.”