G20 Urges Commitment to Stabilize Oil Prices to Boost Global Economy

A pump jack operates in the Permian Basin oil production area near Wink, Texas, US, August 22, 2018. (Reuters)
A pump jack operates in the Permian Basin oil production area near Wink, Texas, US, August 22, 2018. (Reuters)
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G20 Urges Commitment to Stabilize Oil Prices to Boost Global Economy

A pump jack operates in the Permian Basin oil production area near Wink, Texas, US, August 22, 2018. (Reuters)
A pump jack operates in the Permian Basin oil production area near Wink, Texas, US, August 22, 2018. (Reuters)

G20 energy ministers met at a virtual summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia, pledging to work together to ensure oil "market stability”.

OPEC led by Saudi Arabia and its allies led by Russia, which together make up the informal OPEC+ group, had forged a pact to curb crude production by 10 million barrels per day (bpd) or 10% of global supplies in marathon talks on Thursday.

Russia and OPEC said they wanted other producers including the United States and Canada to cut a further 5%.

But efforts to conclude the deal hit the buffers when Mexico said it would only cut output by a quarter of the amount demanded by OPEC+.

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdel Abdulaziz bin Salman told Friday’s summit: “Having affordable, reliable, accessible energy supply is considered a necessity to enable basic services, including health care, and help our efforts in assisting economic recovery.”

The standoff with Mexico had cast doubt on efforts to bolster oil prices, pushed to near two-decade lows by the demand-sapping coronavirus pandemic.

The subsequent G20 talks were expected to seal the deal more widely with non-OPEC countries in the group including Mexico, the United States and Canada, but there was no mention of cuts in the group's final statement.

"We commit to ensure that the energy sector continues to make a full, effective contribution to overcoming COVID-19 and powering the subsequent global recovery," the statement said.

"We commit to work together in the spirit of solidarity on immediate, concrete actions to address these issues in a time of unprecedented international emergency.

"We commit to take all the necessary and immediate measures to ensure energy market stability."

Mexico is the lone holdout in the multilateral OPEC-led deal to slash output in May and June by 10 million barrels per day. The cuts would gradually be reduced until April 2022, according to the deal.

Under the deal, Mexico was expected to cut production by 400,000 barrels per day but the country resisted during the overnight talks.

But Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he had reached an agreement with his US counterpart Donald Trump to cut production by only 100,000 bpd.

Trump confirmed the deal, saying the United States will "make up the difference" by cutting "some US production".

The new OPEC+ deal envisaged all members reducing output by 23%, with Saudi Arabia and Russia each cutting 2.5 million bpd and Iraq cutting over 1 million bpd in May and June.

Riyadh and Moscow agreed that their cuts would both be calculated from an October 2018 baseline of 11 million bpd, even though Saudi supplies surged to 12.3 million bpd this April.

Under the plans, OPEC+ would ease cuts to 8 million bpd from July to December and relax them further to 6 million bpd between January 2021 and April 2022, OPEC+ documents showed.

Norway and Canada, both outside OPEC+, have suggested they could cut if the deal was implemented.



Tesla's China Sales Have Best Month of the Year in August

FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
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Tesla's China Sales Have Best Month of the Year in August

FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A staff member attends to customers inside a Tesla Model Y car at a showroom of the US electric vehicle (EV) maker in Beijing, China, Feb. 4, 2023. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

Tesla's sales in China logged their best month for the year so far in August, with the US electric vehicle maker benefiting from brisk sales in smaller cities.
Tesla said it sold more than 63,000 cars in the world's biggest auto market last month, a hefty 37% jump from July, but probably still down from August last year when it sold 64,694.
While an encouraging improvement, its performance lags major Chinese rivals by a wide margin.
BYD, the world's biggest EV maker, said its China passenger vehicle sales surged 35% in August from a year earlier to a record monthly high of 370,854. Other local EV competitors including Leapmotor and Li Auto also reported higher sales.
Like many other automakers, Tesla has been badly bruised by a protracted price war in China where economic growth has also been sluggish and consumer confidence fragile. Its China sales declined 5% for the first half of the year.
Although Tesla has cut its local sales force as part of a global downsizing, a number of factors have helped recent sales momentum.
Tesla has since April offered zero-interest loans of up to five years for buyers, while several local governments have made its cars eligible for official car purchases in recent weeks.
It also received a key regulatory nod earlier this year, with the country's top auto industry association saying that data collection by Tesla vehicles was compliant with regulations, allowing Tesla cars to enter some government compounds that they used to be banned from.
An analysis by China Merchants Bank International of Tesla's China sales in July showed a 78% year-on-year increase in deliveries in so-called tier-three cities while its sales in second-tier cities such as Hangzhou and Nanjing rose 47%.
Separate data from the China Passenger Car Association for Tesla China-made vehicles which includes exports showed sales grew 3% in August from a year earlier to 86,697 units.
Deliveries of its China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles rose 17% from July.
Tesla plans to produce a six-seat variant of its Model Y car in China from late 2025, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The move is aimed at increasing the appeal of its best-selling yet aging EV.