OPEC PRODUCTION CUT SCHEME
Oil cartel needs to extend Russian deal to fight glut
Total’s CEO is ‘convinced’ Moscow and the big players in Opec will extend output cuts to trim the global inventory glut
New York/Paris — Opec and Russia will need to prolong their six-month deal to cut oil output if they plan to trim the global inventory glut that has kept a lid on prices, said Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne. "If they want really to have an impact on the market, which means to have the inventories going down because inventories are quite high, it will have to be extended beyond May," Pouyanne said on Tuesday on TV in New York. "I’m convinced that they will do it." The CEO of the French oil and gas company added that he planned to keep lowering its so-called break-even point — the oil price at which cash flow covers spending and dividends — because he was "not fully convinced" that tough times for the industry were over. Factors including rising US shale oil production and increasing output from Libya may continue to have a negative effect on prices, Pouyanne said. Oil has held above $50 a barrel since Opec and 11 other nations started trimming output on January 1. The exporters group imp...
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