The OPEC Plus group succeeded in reaching a historic agreement to rebalance the oil markets and stop the collapse in oil prices.

The group had reached the agreement a few days ago in a (exceptional) ministerial meeting of OPEC member countries and oil producing countries from outside the organization through the “Webinar” technology to hold meetings on the Internet, headed by Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Energy as President and Minister of Energy of Russia Alexander Novak as Co-Chair.

 Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago and the International Energy Forum participated in the meeting as observers. During the meeting, the participating countries announced cooperation and reaffirmed their continued commitment to achieving stability in oil markets, maintaining them, and the common interests of producing countries, by providing safe, economic and highly efficient supplies to consumers and with fair returns to invested capital.

Given the current conditions in the global economy in general and the oil markets in particular, the participating countries agreed to meet the following six items:

1. Confirmation of the framework for the Declaration of Cooperation, which was signed on December 10, 2016, and re-ratified at subsequent meetings; in addition to the Cooperation Charter signed on July 2, 2019.
2. Cutting the total production of crude oil by 10.0 million barrels per day, starting from May 1, 2020, and for a period of two months ending on June 30, 2020. During the next six-month period, from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 the total reduction will be 8.0 million barrels per day. This will be followed by a reduction of 6.0 million barrels per day for a period of 16 months starting from January 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022, provided that the reference basis for calculating the reductions is oil production for October 2018, except for Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation, where the basis for each Of them will be 11 million barrels per day. The decision signed will be in effect until April 30, 2022; however, the possibility of extending the decision in December 2021 will be considered.
3. All major oil producing countries from all over the world are invited to contribute to the efforts to achieve market stability.
4. Reaffirming the role of the joint ministerial committee to monitor the production reduction agreement, and extend its mandate and membership, in order to carefully review the conditions of the market, the levels of oil production from each country, and the level of commitment to declare cooperation, and with this statement, supported by each of the committee Joint Technical and OPEC Secretariat.

5. Re-affirm that monitoring compliance with the declaration of cooperation will be applied to the production of crude oil, based on information from secondary sources, in accordance with the methodology applied by OPEC member countries.

6. The next meeting will be held on June 10, 2020, via the “Webinar” technology, to determine additional measures that may be required to balance the markets.

It has been agreed on the above between the OPEC member countries and the oil producing countries from outside that participate in the declaration of cooperation.

Mexico later agreed to participate in the agreement to reduce its oil production by 100,000 barrels per day to contribute to the global cuts, and US President Donald Trump announced that the United States will help Mexico implement their cuts.