Oil prices have fallen sharply during the Asian session after OPEC+ announced it was canceling its meeting, initially scheduled for Monday, raising concerns at stock exchanges that production cuts could meet obstacles.

The price of US crude oil WTI fell by 9.2% to 25.72 USD per barrel, while the international Brent variety fell by 8.7% to 31.15 USD per barrel.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major oil producers are in a hurry to negotiate a deal to close the historic price slump as diplomats try to force the United States to join the coalition.

“President Vladimir Putin and the Russian side as a whole are eager to begin constructive negotiations, which is the only way to stabilize the international energy market”, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on state television on Sunday. Failure will mean a collapse in prices, he explains.

Negotiations still face significant hurdles: an OPEC+ manufacturers meeting was adjourned on Monday and is currently scheduled for Thursday while negotiators work against the clock. The goal, first revealed by President Donald Trump, is to shrink oil production by about 10% – the largest coordinated reduction so far.

Crude oil depreciated by 50% this year as the economic effects of the pandemic wiped out about one-third of global demand. The price crash is so dramatic that it threatens the budgets and political stability of oil-dependent countries, the existence of US shale oil producers and jobs in an industry that is already in turmoil. Even the International Energy Agency, which represents nations consuming oil, is calling for action.

Saudi Arabia and Russia say they want the US, which has become the world’s largest producer thanks to the Shale Revolution, to join the cuts in production. But Trump found only hostile words about OPEC on Saturday and threatened foreign oil duties.

“If the Americans do not participate, the problem that has hitherto existed for Russians and Saudis will remain – they are reducing production while the US is stepping it up and that makes everything impossible”, said Fyodor Lukyanov, Member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, which advice the Kremlin.

Oil recovered from the bottom of 20 USD per barrel this week and Brent ended the Friday session at 34.11 USD. However, this is still far from the price of 66 USD per barrel at the end of 2019.

On Thursday, prices saw their biggest one-day increase after Trump said he expects Russia and Saudi Arabia to announce a large drop in production. The US is not a party to OPEC+, and the idea that Washington has long cut production has long been considered impossible, not least because of US antitrust laws.

But the collapse in the price of oil has prompted regulators in Texas, the center of oil production in the United States, to consider regulating production for the first time in nearly 50 years.

But US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette did not mention in an interview with oil industry leaders Friday the possibility of cutting US output, a source who attended the conversation revealed.

On Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that shrinking by 10 million barrels per day would not be enough to compensate for the huge drop in demand. Even with such a cut, stocks will increase by 15 million barrels per day in the second quarter.