© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: OPEC’s logo is seen in this illustration taken, October 8, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
By Maha El Dahan, Olesya Astakhova and Alex Lawler
DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) -OPEC+ is continuing to hold talks on 2024 oil policy, with no delay to a meeting scheduled for Thursday currently expected, two sources from the producer group said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, sources had said a further delay to the meeting was possible amid talks which one of them described as difficult as countries maintained their positions.
“The negotiations are ongoing, but no delay is expected,” one of the sources said.
The meeting has already been delayed from Nov. 26. OPEC+ sources said this was because of a disagreement over output quotas for African producers, though sources since said the group had moved closer to a compromise on this point.
The talks on African quotas come against a backdrop of the United Arab Emirates being allowed, as per OPEC+’s last agreement in June, to raise output in 2024.
Global benchmark was up 18 cents at $81.86 a barrel as of 0908 GMT. Prices have dropped from near $98 in late September, pressured by concerns about weaker economic growth and expectations of a supply surplus in 2024.
OPEC+ talks over production quotas have often been difficult in the past, most recently at their June meeting, which extended existing oil output cuts into 2024 and agreed the increase for the UAE because of its efforts to expand production capacity.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of OPEC+ have already pledged total oil output cuts of about 5 million barrels per day (bpd), about 5% of daily global demand, in a series of steps that started in late 2022.
This includes Saudi Arabia’s additional voluntary production cut of 1 million bpd, which is due to expire at the end of December, and a Russian export cut of 300,000 bpd until the end of the year.
