"As we all know, several countries were discussing an agreement to cut 10 mbd out of the market, but the agreement never materialized. This is extremely disappointing," Brouillette said in prepared remarks for Friday's meeting of the G20 energy ministers.
OPEC+ countries conducted online talks for ten hours through the night and later announced that a declaration of cooperation had been adopted by all member states apart from Mexico. The deal, which commits OPEC+ countries to collectively reduce crude oil output by 10 mbd beginning in May will only become binding if Mexico signs the agreement.
The Azerbaijan Energy Ministry said that Mexican officials had rejected cutting oil output by 400,000 barrels per day as it was willing to cut only 100,000 barrels per day from May to June.
Brouillette said the United States is calling on all nations to use every means at their disposal to help reduce the surplus of oil and stabilize the market.
"Indeed, the President [Donald Trump] and other administration officials have been in conversations with the appropriate nations to help make this happen," he said.
Brouillette explained that the United States is taking action to open our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to store as much oil as possible.
"This will take surplus oil off the market at a time when commercial storage is filling up and the market is oversupplied. And we will look for more opportunities to ease the hurt felt by our producers," he said.
Brouillette also said that the energy markets are additionally impacted by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in addition to the failure of the OPEC+ talks.
"The result of this lethal combination is an incredibly destructive decline in the oil markets," he said. "It is fair to say that each nation represented here today has been substantially affected by this crisis."
Brouillette pointed out that the US oil industry is gravely impacted and Washington estimates production will be reduced by nearly 2 million barrels per day by the end of 2020.
"Some models show even more dramatic figures, for example, up to 3 million barrels per day," he said.
Saudi Arabia, which currently holds the G20 presidency, called the extraordinary meeting of the energy ministers in the wake of the OPEC+ deal being announced.
