The United States has become the world’s largest producer but Trump’s administration has shown no appetite to mandate cuts.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, the two OPEC+ leaders, have insisted that they will only participate if the US also agrees to production cuts.

The oil market has collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the inability of the OPEC+ alliance to agree on a production cut strategy at its last meeting March 5-6, when Russia rejected a Saudi-led proposal for deeper cuts.

Spot gold rose 0.6% to $1,654.94 per ounce by 0719 GMT, having hit a four-week high of $1,671.40 on Tuesday. It has risen more than 2.3% this week.

"At the same time, the industry has announced and initiated a number of measures, and we can already see that this is affecting activity on the Norwegian shelf. Substantial cost cuts have been announced, reducing both exploration activity, investments and operating costs moving forward," says Director General Ingrid Sølvberg.

Brent was up by 21 cents, or 0.8%, at $32.08 per barrel, WTI rose 82 cents, or 3.8%, to $24.45 a barrel

"We are encouraged by the President’s strong diplomacy with Saudi Arabia and Russia, and we are optimistic further progress will be made in the days ahead. No one wins in a price war, and the Saudis and the Russians aren’t benefiting from their decisions. We also urged the administration to avoid U.S. policies that could do more harm than good for American producers.

OPEC has been open to counting natural production declines in its output cut agreements, but there is no indication the US would be willing to sign up to that, and some delegates say Russia might not agree such a dressed-up US cut anyway.

Brent crude oil prices averaged $32/barrel (b) in March, a decrease of $24/b from the average in February and the lowest monthly average since January 2016.

Brent was up by 80 cents, or 2.4%, at $33.85 a barrel, WTI was up by 83 cents, or 3.2%, at $26.91 a barrel

Front-month gas futures for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 11.0 cents, or 6.8%, to settle at $1.731 per million British thermal units.

Brent was down $1.23, or 3.6%, at $32.88 a barrel, WTI was $1.01, or 3.6%, lower at $27.33 a barrel

«Россия считает необходимым объединить эти усилия. Мы готовы к договоренностям с партнерами и в рамках механизма ОПЕК+, и к взаимодействию с США по этому вопросу. В результате необходимо сократить добычу, предварительно, на 10 млн баррелей в сутки. Это должно происходить по-партнерски. Все понимают, что речь может идти о сокращении от уровня добычи 1 квартала текущего года», - подчеркнул Президент.​

«На нефтяном рынке спрос также падает, на 10-15%. Мы надеемся, что в течение нескольких месяцев с постепенным увеличением экономической активности спрос все же будет нарастать», - сказал Александр Новак.

Мы при необходимости не исключаем и такой вариант развития событий. Если такое желание будет у стран, входящих в ОПЕК+ и стран, которые не входят, которые тоже сегодня проявляют активность, потому что попали в трудную ситуацию, — я этот вариант не исключаю.