Trump says OPEC+ to cut production by 20mln bpd

Washington: Top global oil producers are considering cutting production by 20 million barrels per day under the terms of a deal to boost prices, US President Donald Trump said on Monday.

Trump, who took credit for brokering the deal, said the agreement was bigger than expected and will help the energy industry recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Having been involved in the negotiations, to put it mildly, the number that OPEC+ is looking to cut is 20 Million Barrels a day, not the 10 Million that is generally being reported," Trump tweeted.

"Thank you to all of those who worked with me on getting this very big business back on track, in particular Russia and Saudi Arabia."

Oil prices have been hammered by a slump in global economic activity caused by the pandemic, as well as a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. OPEC and allies led by Russia on Sunday agreed to a record cut in output to prop up oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic and said they had an unprecedented deal with fellow oil nations, including the United States, to curb global oil supply by 20 percent.

Measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus have destroyed demand for fuel and driven down oil prices, straining budgets of oil producers and hammering the U.S. shale industry, which is more vulnerable to low prices due to its higher costs.

Trump had threatened OPEC leader Saudi Arabia with oil tariffs and other measures if it did not fix the market’s oversupply problem as low prices have put the U.S. oil industry, the world’s largest, in severe distress.