Saudi Arabia won't attend a meeting with Russia and other producers outside OPEC to discuss an output-reduction plan because it wants the group to complete its own deal first, cartel officials said Friday.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had planned to meet producers outside the group Monday in Vienna. OPEC is holding its own official meeting Wednesday to complete a tentative output cut clinched in September.

Saudi Arabia's absence from the meeting with Russia, the world's largest producer of crude oil, makes it all but certain that the gathering won't produce an agreement of substance. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter of crude oil and OPEC's most important and influential member.

Saudi Arabia wants a "clear decision within OPEC" before asking Russia and others to join, an OPEC official said. Russia has said it would freeze, or hold steady, its output if OPEC agrees to act.

In another stumbling block for an OPEC production-cut deal, Iraq and Iran, the group's second- and third-largest producers, have yet to agree on the detailed plan to reduce output discussed by the cartel.

Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2016 13:35 ET (18:35 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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