(Adds details throughout)
By Laila Kearney
April 3 (Reuters) - The White House is not negotiating with
Saudi Arabia or Russia over a deal to cut oil production and
wants the two parties to come to an agreement among themselves,
U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told industry executives
on a call on Friday, according to a source who listened in.
Brouillette spoke with independent producers and other
members of the broader oil industry shortly after U.S. President
Donald Trump met with executives from major oil companies at the
White House to discuss the sharp oil-price downturn threatening
to upend their businesses.
The energy secretary said the White House is encouraging
Russia and Saudi Arabia to come to an agreement, adding that
Trump was optimistic that a deal could be reached in a few days.
Oil demand has fallen dramatically in recent weeks due to
the coronavirus outbreak and a Saudi-Russia price war.
Plummeting demand, coupled with the flood of supply resulting
from the price war, led U.S. oil futures prices to crash 54% in
March.
White House officials also said on the call that Trump has
directed his energy and treasury secretaries to find ways to
immediately improve liquidity for the energy sector, and could
include relaxing banking standards to provide more credit to oil
companies, the source said.
OPEC sources have said they wanted to see U.S. production
cut in order to curb their own output. Russia and other
countries have reduced production for three years while U.S.
supply surged to an all-time record, helping them gain market
share of oil sales.