December 03, 2019: Faced with slowing global economic growth and with abundant stocks putting pressure on oil prices, the OPEC group of oil producers and its partners are set to maintain production cuts when they meet in Vienna on Thursday and Friday.

The cuts of 1.2 million barrels per day from October 2018 levels were originally fixed in December last year and were already extended at OPEC's last meeting in June.

They are currently due to remain in effect until March 2020 and could be extended “until June, the date of the next summit,” says Tomas Varga, analyst at PVM.

According to Andy Lipow from Lipow Oil Associates the cuts could even be drawn out “until the end of 2020”.

OPEC's Economic Commission Board — which is a strong indicator of the bloc's direction — said last week that maintaining cuts into 2020 would lead to a “balanced” market.

AFP/APP

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