* Russian, Saudi ministers to meet on Wednesday
* Full OPEC ministerial meeting in Vienna on Thursday
* Saudi Arabia, others push for new cuts of 1 mln bpd
* Russia hesitating on big new reductions
By Rania El Gamal, Alex Lawler and Olesya Astakhova
VIENNA, March 4 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and other OPEC
members will seek to persuade Russia on Wednesday to join them
in large additional oil output cuts to prop up prices which have
tumbled by a fifth this year because of the coronavirus
outbreak.
A technical panel of several representatives from OPEC
states, Russia and other producers recommended on Tuesday
cutting output by as much as an extra 1 million barrels per day
(bpd) during the second quarter only.
It also recommended that existing cuts of 2.1 million bpd by
the group known as OPEC+, which meets in Vienna this week, be
extended until the end of 2020.
Russia has so far signalled it might be willing to agree to
extending existing cuts, which expire in March, but might find
it difficult to sign up to deeper cuts.
"OPEC hopes for a cut bigger than 1 million but the
challenge is still Russia," an OPEC source said, saying much
would depend on Wednesday's meeting between Saudi Energy
Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and his Russian counterpart
Alexander Novak.
The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC),
comprising a handful of OPEC and non-OPEC ministers, convenes in
Vienna on Wednesday at about 1130 GMT. The Saudi and Russian
ministers are both on that committee.
Existing cuts have not been enough to counter the impact of
the virus on China, the world's biggest oil importer, and on the
global economy, as factories are disrupted, fewer people are
travelling and other business slows, curbing oil demand.
Benchmark Brent oil prices were around $52 a barrel LCOc1
on Wednesday, a level at which many OPEC states will struggle to
balance their budgets, although Russian President Vladimir Putin
has said the current price was acceptable. Wednesday's JMMC meeting is part of the process of drawing
up recommendations for the wider meeting of ministers from the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Thursday
and a meeting of OPEC+ ministers on Friday.
BREAKINGVIEWS-OPEC readies knife for oil demand-slump gunfight
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