Brazil - a non-OPEC producer with a fast-growing oil output - will be joining other non-OPEC members, including Russia, at Saturday's discussion with the cartel producers about possible cooperation on production freeze or cut, Bloomberg reports, quoting a text message by Brazil's energy minister Fernando Bezerra Coelho Filho.
Brazilian Oil and Gas Secretary Marcio Felix will be attending the Saturday meeting in Vienna, during which OPEC will seek support from producers outside the cartel on ways to lift chronically low crude oil prices.
Commenting on the chances of OPEC reaching a real deal on production freeze/cuts, Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said for Bloomberg in an e-mail:
"I remain very optimistic because of the increasing signs of economic strains in Saudi and other key producers."
On Friday, an OPEC-only meeting started the talks in Vienna to try to hammer out the details of who's cutting (or not) how much in order to ratchet down total OPEC output into the proposed production range of 32.5 million bpd-33 million bpd.
The meeting of OPEC's High-level Committee of the Algiers Accord will not decide outright a course of action, rather, it would make recommendations for the other OPEC meeting, again in Vienna, on November 30.
"Our deliberations today - and tomorrow with some non-OPEC producers - could very well have fundamental ramifications for the market, as well as for the medium- to long-term of the industry," OPEC's Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said in the opening remarks.
According to Reuters, the producers outside the cartel that will be sending representatives to take part in Saturday's talks are Russia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Oman, Azerbaijan, Brazil, and Bolivia.
On the eve of this weekend's meeting, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC partners had signaled they would be ready to cut 4 percent of their near record oil output. Before today's meeting, an OPEC delegate told Reuters:
"It is getting complicated…Every day there is a new issue coming up."
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More