No Deal in Doha

Thus far, the 18 nations attending the Doha meetings have managed to scarf down lots of harissa and kunafa; but very little progress has been made in the field of making a deal for proposed oil production levels.

It’s worth noting, Iran hasn’t bothered to partake in these meetings, for they are too busy drilling for oil–attempting to steal Saudi market share.

Ministers started talks after 1230 GMT and were still debating the draft more than two hours later.
The prospects of a comprehensive deal, which would be the first between OPEC and non-OPEC countries in 15 years, looked slim.

“I am not sure you can call it a freeze,” one OPEC source said.
A senior oil industry source said: “The problem now is to come up with something that excludes Iran, makes the Saudis happy and doesn’t upset Russia.”

Failure to reach a global deal would signal the resumption of a battle for market share between key producers and likely halt a recent recovery in prices.

“If there is no deal today, it will be more than just Iran that Saudi Arabia will be targeting. If there is no freeze, that would directly affect North American production going forward, perhaps something Saudis might like to see,” said Natixis oil analyst Abhishek Deshpande.

The good folks from OPEC have been deal-less (extra Trump) for about 10 hours now. The clock is ticking and crude futures will open in about 5 hours.