Iraq's oil minister says any new OPEC+ pact should be backed by US, Canada and Norway

Dubai — Iraq's oil minister said on Sunday any new output cuts agreement among OPEC+ members, who are set to meet in an emergency meeting on Thursday, should be backed by countries outside the 23-member alliance, such as the US, Canada and Norway.

"Producers within or outside OPEC+ are in the same boat and all of them should bear responsibility and bring the boat ashore to ensure stability through a new output cut agreement," Thamer al-Ghadhban said in an oil ministry statement.

Iraq, OPEC's second largest oil producer, has long supported a new OPEC+ agreement after the previous one expired in March, pushing oil prices to less than $30/b and wreaking havoc on the country's already weak finances.

Saudi Arabia on April 2 called for an emergency OPEC+ meeting to get a "fair" deal to stabilize the oil market. However, it has been locked in a war-of-words with Russia over which side is to blame for the oil price war, leading to the delay in convening the meeting initially scheduled for Monday to Thursday.

So far, Norway has indicated it would join production cuts as part of a broad international effort.

Norway, Europe's largest oil producer, would be willing to participate in production cuts as part of a "broad" international effort, Petroleum and Energy Minister Tina Bru said Saturday.

US tariffs

US President Donald Trump has called on Russia and Saudi Arabia to settle their dispute and warned he might impose tariffs on oil imports if American oil workers and companies continue to hurt from the oil price crash. Saudi Arabian officials had told him a deal was in the works for a 10 million barrel cut if not more, but the dispute between Riyadh and Moscow is threatening to destroy both countries, he said.

"I have been against OPEC all my life," Trump said on Saturday. "I think they (Russia and Saudi Arabia) are going to settle ....because they will be destroyed if they don't. If I have to do tariffs on oil coming from outside... I'll do what I have to do."

Russia reiterated on Saturday it supports a new OPEC+ agreement, two days after President Vladimir Putin said that Saudi Arabia was boosting its production to target US shale oil companies, while maintaining that Russia was not interested in taking US market share. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry fired back Saturday, calling the comments "devoid of truth" and a "distortion of facts," in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"Russia was not a supporter of ending the OPEC+ deal. President Putin and the Russian side are overall inclined towards a constructive negotiation process, there is no alternative for stabilizing the international energy market," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during an interview aired on the Russia 1 TV Channel on Sunday.