This decision comes at a time when global oil demand is still under pressure from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Saudi Arabia wanted to introduce production cuts of 7.7 million bpd into January-March 2021 amid a resurgent Covid-19 pandemic. With the coronavirus pandemic hitting the US full force, the country too was pushing on Saudi Arabia and Russia to agree on significant cutbacks on production. As storage spaces for oil began running out around the world an agreement between all Opec countries became impertinent. Issues started to creep up when not all countries abided by decided supply cuts and continued to produce a surplus.

Source: Hindustan Times December 26, 2020 13:58 UTC