OPEC and Russia are ready to extend their oil production cuts until the end of next year to ensure global stockpiles keep falling and prices maintain recent gains.
All OPEC members and Russia, the biggest producer outside the group to join the deal, agree the cuts should last until the end of 2018, according to delegates in Vienna to attend Thursday’s meeting. On Wednesday, a committee charged with overseeing the agreement on behalf of the whole group also recommended extending until the end of next year, two delegates said. “The extension will be nine months,” said Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi. A year after OPEC and its allies banded together in a dramatic bid to wrest back control of the oil market from U.S. shale producers, there’s a consensus that the job’s not finished.