​​​​​​​There is no agreement to reduce oil production at G-20 ministers' meeting

Saudi Arabia organized the world's first oil-exporting meeting.

In the joint statement issued today, Saturday, the ministers pointed out "the commitment to ensure that the energy sector continues to make a full and effective contribution to overcoming the Corona virus and promoting the global recovery that follows."

The statement continued: "We are committed to working together in a spirit of solidarity, on immediate and concrete measures to address these issues during an unprecedented international emergency."

The statement stressed, according to Agence France-Presse, "a commitment to take all necessary and immediate measures to ensure the stability of the energy market."

The ministers held their meeting via video after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies reached an agreement to cut production, which Mexico refrained from supporting, which prevents its implementation.

But an agreement between the United States and Mexico to help Mexico implement its share of the cuts producers want appears to remove the obstacle preventing the implementation of the understanding.

The Canadian representative at the meeting, Simos Oregon, Minister of Natural Resources, said that the energy ministers "did not discuss numbers" related to reducing global crude production.

"Today's discussions dealt with a multilateral solution to settle the problem of price volatility," Oregon said at a press conference. "We did not discuss numbers; it was not about numbers."

He continued, "At this stage, it was actually a matter of discussing a policy and a collective commitment to use all available tools to improve stability," explaining that "we have created a working group that will be tasked with securing coordinated elements of the response and reporting on it," and he said that this group will meet "soon."

The Canadian minister emphasized that the video meeting was "successful" simply because it was held, noting that "the G 20 countries already share an understanding that the security and economic prosperity of our people is linked to an energy market that works well and is stable."

He added, "Our willingness to work together to coordinate our efforts immediately and collect data to know what we need to do to reach this stability is a big step forward," and added, "We have not yet reached the place we want, but we are definitely heading in the right direction."

T/S

ANHA