By Summer Said and Benoit Faucon 

The Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will convene a virtual meeting on Thursday with other oil-producing nations including Canada and Russia, aiming to negotiate a truce in a Saudi-Russia fight for market share that has cratered oil prices over the past month.

Saudi Arabia has delayed pricing its crude for May delivery as it awaits the result of the meeting. The move represents a cease-fire in a price war that has contributed to a 70% drop in oil prices since early March, when Saudi Arabia and Russia split over how to respond to a global coronavirus outbreak.

Delaying the pricing decision is an act of good faith from the kingdom showing it wants to strike a deal but also a threat it could resume the fight if talks fail, OPEC delegates said.

The collapse of production talks among Saudi Arabia, Russia and their allies last month prompted the kingdom to slash its prices to take market share from rivals. The 23-nation alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia -- known as OPEC+ -- was due to revive talks on Monday to consider cutting collective production by as much as 10 million barrels a day as the coronavirus pandemic continues to erode oil demand. OPEC had hoped U.S. producers might join the call but the virtual meeting was delayed by four days after Saudi Arabia and Russia swapped barbs and the U.S. failed to outline production cuts of its own.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have said privately they are unlikely to cut oil output unless North American producers join in. Canada has now signaled it would participate in the call this week. Alberta's Energy Minister Sonya Savage will participate in the conference call though it is unclear what it will decide, the province's premier, Jason Kenney, said Friday.

"We are open to playing a role if there's a larger effort to stop the madness," Mr. Kenney said. Alberta has already been operating under government-mandated production quotas since last year over pipeline constraints.

The U.S. has sent mixed messages over its course of action. Late Saturday, President Donald Trump threatened to impose taxes on foreign crude imports to protect his country's domestic oil industry. "If we have to do tariffs on oil coming from outside or something to protect tens of thousands of energy workers in our great companies that produce these jobs, I will do what I have to do," he told a press briefing.

Before his threat to impose tariffs on foreign producers, Mr. Trump encouraged other nations to coordinate oil curbs. On Thursday, he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying a truce could be worked out in the oil-price war between the two countries. The president's tweet sparked a record-breaking 25% climb in oil prices.

Separately, Texas oil regulators are debating whether to impose limits on the state's producers, though they won't decide until April 14, five days after the OPEC virtual meeting.

Write to Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com and Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 05, 2020 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)