Just when a potential OPEC deal was looking more like wishful thinking than a reality, sources told Reuters on Thursday that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC producer allies had signaled that they would be ready to cut their near record crude oil production by 4 percent. According to the Reuters sources, the energy ministers from the Gulf countries told Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak last Sunday in Riyadh that they would be willing to cut. Novak, on the other hand, told the Gulf ministers that Russia would not cut, but rather freeze its crude oil output at its current level. The Saudis and their Gulf OPEC allies are expected to table the offer to cut 4 percent of output until a meeting on October 28 and 29, when OPEC and non-OPEC producers, including Russia, will discuss details of the deal-to-make-a-deal they had reached in Algiers last month. Right […]