* OPEC delivered surprise with bigger than expected cut plan
* Russian energy minister due in Vienna for Friday's meeting
* Oil prices have plunged 20% this year, now trading below
By Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Olesya Astakhova
VIENNA, March 6 (Reuters) - OPEC holds crunch talks with its
allies on Friday after the group told Russia and others it
wanted an additional 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil
cuts until the end of 2020, saying a big move was needed to deal
with the impact of coronavirus.
OPEC's proposal effectively presents an ultimatum to Moscow,
which has so far been reluctant to back extra curbs on supply,
even though oil prices have plunged more than 20% since the
start of the year, trading below $50 a barrel on Friday.
Saudi Arabia had been pushing for a big oil cut ahead of
this week's talks in Vienna between OPEC, Russia and other
producers, a group known as OPEC+.
But OPEC ministers, who met on Thursday, backed a proposal
for an even larger reduction than expected.
Their decision followed two rounds of talks, first a formal
session at OPEC headquarters and then an informal gathering at a
Vienna hotel, when the ministers said the extra 1.5 million bpd
of cuts should run to the end of the year not just till June.
The ministers said the market faced an "unprecedented
situation" because of the coronavirus outbreak, which has
prompted measures to stop it spreading that have dampened global
economic activity and put the brakes on demand for oil.
If Russia, which has been cooperating with OPEC since 2016,
and other producers approve OPEC's proposal, it will mean the
biggest curbs on production since the 2008 financial crisis.
But Moscow has yet to indicate its support for such a deal,
fuelling frustration in Saudi Arabia which has been cutting far
more than its quota under an existing deal to remove 2.1 million
bpd from the market since Jan. 1.
The new deal would mean supply curbs amounting to a total of
3.6 million bpd, or about 3.6% of global supplies.
Suhail al-Mazroui, energy minister of the United Arab
Emirates, said on Thursday that OPEC did not want to carry the
burden of cuts alone and non-OPEC had to help.
"We are all in this together. So it's not going to be us
making a decision alone," he said.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, who held
preliminary talks with his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz
bin Salman in Vienna earlier this week, is due back in the
Austrian capital on Friday for the OPEC+ meeting.
Novak and the Saudi prince have given little indication in
public about whether they will be able to reach a deal, leaving
the outcome of Friday's talks far from clear.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Thursday he
was ready for a drop in oil prices if there was no deal.
Kazakh Energy Minister Nurlan Nogayev, whose country is
another non-OPEC producer in the OPEC+ group, said talks were
only focusing on extending existing curbs to June.