(Bloomberg) -- A panel of OPEC+ ministers couldn’t reach an agreement on whether to delay January’s oil-output increase, leaving the matter unresolved before a full meeting of the cartel and its allies on Monday.

Most participants in an informal online discussion on Sunday evening supported maintaining the production curbs at current levels into the first quarter, said a delegate. Yet while Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak spoke in favor of postponing the supply hike that’s currently scheduled to happen in the new year, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan were opposed, said the delegate, asking not to be named because the talks were private.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a 23-nation network that pumps more than half the world’s crude, made vast production cuts during the depths of the pandemic to offset a historic collapse in fuel demand. The alliance had planned to ease some of those curbs at the start of 2021, in anticipation of a global economic recovery. Unless the agreement is revised this week, they will restart about 1.9 million barrels a day of halted output.

Saudi Arabia and Russia summoned a small group of OPEC+ countries for last-minute talks this weekend, in an apparent effort to forge a consensus before making a final decision at a conference scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

Prior to this weekend, a clear majority of OPEC+ watchers were expecting the group to keep pumping at current levels for a few months longer due to lingering uncertainty about the strength of demand. However, the decision has been clouded by public complaints from Iraq and Nigeria, and private discord with the United Arab Emirates.

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