The special emergency OPEC+ meeting to try to end the oil price war by cutting the production by the OPEC and other major oil producers, among them Russia, is unlikely to be held on Monday, reports stated on Saturday.

“It now seems probable that the meeting will take place later in the week,” a source told AFP, who requested not to be named.

As per other reports, the OPEC+ need more time for negotiation.

This comes after a new rift emerged between Saudi Arabia and Russia after both mega oil producers blamed each other for jeopardising a deal to cut the oil production.

On Saturday Saudi Arabia issued two critical statements which were later released by the kingdom’s state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The first came from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan under the headline: “Statements Attributed to One of Russian President’s Media Are ‘Completely Devoid of Truth’.”

And the second statement came from Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, one of King Salman’s sons. The prince criticized Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak by name for suggesting Saudi Arabia wanted to cut out shale producers.

The prince “expressed his surprise at the attempts to bring Saudi Arabia into hostilities against the shale oil industry, which is completely false as our Russian friends recognize well”, the statement said.

Saudi Arabia’s reaction comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the kingdom for the collapse in global energy prices.

Putin on Friday had said that “Saudi Arabia didn’t agree to extend the deal on current conditions, effectively withdrew from the deal and announced significant additional discounts for their oil.”

The initial news of OPEC+ emergency meeting had spurred some recovery in the benchmark oil prices last week, giving traders some relief from the over supply of oil at the time of a global pandemic and low oil demand.

Oil prices have tumbled to levels not seen for decades due to the coronavirus outbreak, with an additional hit coming after Russia and OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia failed to agree on new production cuts and instead launched a price war.