Opec, allies reaffirm commitment to balanced oil markets

Abu Dhabi: Opec and its allies on Sunday reaffirmed their commitment to achieving a balanced market and working towards oil market stability on a sustainable basis with solid fundamentals.

A statement issued by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) after the conclusion of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting in Jeddah said the average conformity for the production cut agreement also known as the Declaration of Cooperation reached 120 per cent since January 2019.

Opec and its allies including Russia are cutting output by 1.2 million barrels per day since January 1 in order to reduce global oil inventories for rebalancing of oil markets.

Opec also noted that critical uncertainties for remain for oil markets including ongoing trade negotiations, monetary policy developments and geopolitical challenges.

“The JMMC requested that the Joint Technical Committee and the Opec Secretariat continue to monitor and analyze oil market developments and, particularly, oil inventory projections in the coming weeks with a view to the next JMMC meeting making a recommendation to the Opec Conference and Opec and non-Opec Ministerial Meeting, which are scheduled to meet in June 2019, regarding appropriate actions on the part of participating countries for the second half of 2019,” Opec statement added.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Khalid Al Falih hinted about continuation of the production cut agreement and said oil inventories still remain high with plentiful supplies.