The eagerly awaited gathering comes as oil exporters globally are hurt by low prices DUBAI: Oil prices spiked by more than 5 percent on Friday as the Saudi oil minister said OPEC+ producers were preparing to hold an output meeting on Saturday. The eagerly awaited gathering comes as oil exporters globally are hurt by low prices linked to the coronavirus pandemic which has sapped demand for gasoline and aviation fuel. “The conditions right now warrant hopefully successful meetings. Coordination is under way to hold OPEC and OPEC+ meetings tomorrow afternoon,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told Reuters. The OPEC+ producers which include Russia previously agreed to cut supply by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June to help cushion the demand-sapping impact of the pandemic. The agreed production cuts were due to gradually decrease to 7.7 million bpd from July to December. Brent crude gained was up 5.85 percent in late afternoon trade in London to trade above $42. The US WTI grade also advanced by a similar measure , rising above $39. UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei, urged producers to improve their compliance with agreed cuts. “As a representative of the UAE, I find it disappointing and unacceptable that some of the largest producers with capacity like (Saudi Arabia) and Russia comply 100 percent or more while other major producers do less than 50 percent,” he wrote in the letter seen by Reuters. Iraq had one of the worst compliance rates in May according to a Reuters survey of OPEC production. Global oil exporters have come under intense pressure this year as the pandemic stifles the beginning of a recovery in energy investment that had started to materialize. At the start of the year, global energy investment was expected to rise 2 percent in 2020, its biggest growth in six years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) had predicted. Instead, the Paris-based organization now expects global investment in energy to plunge by 20 percent this year — the equivalent of $400 billion.