Russia has questioned the US contribution to a global oil deal a day before the OPEC+ virtual meeting.

The world’s largest oil producers will meet on Thursday and Friday in an attempt to stem the decline in market values ​​of oil, which threatens the stability of companies and countries. Saudi Arabia, Russia, and their OPEC allies are discussing deliberate cuts to production to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on demand, but so far, the US is only offering a reduction in market-led production.

“Russia does not consider reduced supply, driven by falling demand or lower prices, to actually reduce production in the parameters of the proposed deal in OPEC+”, said the Kremlin on Wednesday. It was the first statement from Moscow about this key aspect of the talks, which stated that President Vladimir Putin could expect more significant input from the US than his counterpart Donald Trump was prepared to give. “You are comparing the overall decline in demand to redundancies aimed at stabilizing the global market”, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked if Russia would accept cuts in US production. “These are completely different things”, added he.

So far, Washington has only offered an “automatic” and “market” decline in production, which is the result of actions by companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. to reduce costs in response to low prices.

If Russia, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other global producers such as Brazil and Canada manage to reach a deal, it could still lead to a 10% reduction in global production. The so-called physical commodity market – trading in real goods, not futures contracts – needs a real reduction in supplies.

In a televised address on Tuesday, Jason Kenney, Premier of Alberta in Canada, warned that there was “a very real possibility” of negative energy prices.