OPEC meeting ends without conclusion after six hours

ANKARA

OPEC's much-anticipated 177th meeting ended late Thursday in Vienna without any conclusion or a potential deal in sight, as ministers left in a rush without responding to most questions from the media.

The organization's meeting started more than two hours late on Thursday at 1715 local time (1615 GMT) and ended around 2305 local time (2205 GMT).

After almost six hours behind closed doors, OPEC member countries' energy and oil ministers failed to reach an agreement on extending the current oil production cut or deepening it.

A news conference that was due to be held following all OPEC ministerial meetings was also canceled, while earlier reporters were not allowed to ask questions to OPEC ministers prior to their afternoon meeting.

Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman provided most of the comments for reporters, but his response came short of any definitive strategy about what OPEC would do to support oil prices.

"We can't say we have an agreement until we meet with our colleagues in non-OPEC," bin Salman said.

However, he responded in the affirmative to the question on whether there is an agreement among OPEC members, "Of course," he said.

The 10-member non-OPEC oil producing countries, including Russia, will meet with OPEC in Vienna on Friday at 1100 local time (1000 GMT).

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters earlier Thursday that OPEC was advised to lower its oil production level by an additional 500,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2020.