President Trump says OPEC has not asked him to urge US oil producers to cut back

President Donald Trump said on Monday that OPEC had not pressed him to consider asking US producers to reduce their output as a way to support oil prices depressed by an economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The president said that OPEC had not approached him with such a suggestion but said that US oil production had already fallen. "I think it's happening automatically but nobody's asked me that question yet so we'll see what happens," the president told a press briefing.

Major oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia are likely to agree to cut production at a Thursday meeting but only if the United States joins the effort, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters.

OPEC+ is working on a deal to cut oil production by about 10 percent of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day (bpd), in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort.

A previous production-cut deal ended last month after Russia and Saudi Arabia were unable to come to an agreement to curb output further as the coronavirus pandemic destroyed demand.

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