OPEC oil ministers will gather in Vienna on Wednesday to finalize a preliminary agreement reached in September that would put a cap on the cartel's petroleum production.
 
Last-ditch shuttle diplomacy ahead of the crucial Vienna meeting. OPEC oil ministers are trying to resolve disagreements about how to share the burden of supply cuts.

In September, OPEC agreed to cut production to between 32 point 5 million and 33 million barrels per day. The change of Iraq’s opposition increases the likelihood of an agreement, but the refusal of just one major producer could nix the entire deal.

“There are the ones that they need to produce more. Iran says we have had sanctions for more than a decade. We need to come out of that. And you have, as I said other countries for various reasons, could not be able to produce what we could produce. We now can produce that, we want to produce it. They are pulling towards more production. They said it is okay to limit production, but you other countries do it, why they have to produce so much less, while other counties are producing more.” said Cornelia Meyer, CEO of MRL Corporation.

To solve the problem of oversupply and to prop up prices, the organization also needs support from non-OPEC producers. However, the lack of an internal OPEC agreement makes it less convincing.

Cornelia Meyer said ”In October, President Putin went to Istanbul and met with a lot of OPEC countries and said we will follow OPEC if they make the cut. Then when we come to the America, the second that the oil price goes above 50, you will see quite a few shale producers coming back on stream, which again will be a negative pressure on the oil price, because you will have more production. so it is not going to be that easy. I would say unless OPEC can come up with at least a freeze, it will be hard to convince other people to follow that.”

The market is now quite optimistic about the chances of OPEC finalizing this deal. But if it fails, the sell-off is likely to send oil prices tumbling again.