Austrian policemen guard entrance to the Opec headquarters in Vienna where ministers are due to meet next week amid calls for an extension to oil production cuts. Joe Klamer / AFP
Austrian policemen guard entrance to the Opec headquarters in Vienna where ministers are due to meet next week amid calls for an extension to oil production cuts. Joe Klamer / AFP
Austrian policemen guard entrance to the Opec headquarters in Vienna where ministers are due to meet next week amid calls for an extension to oil production cuts. Joe Klamer / AFP
Austrian policemen guard entrance to the Opec headquarters in Vienna where ministers are due to meet next week amid calls for an extension to oil production cuts. Joe Klamer / AFP

Oil ministers agree Opec cuts need to be extended


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Opec will need to extend supply cuts when it meets next week to end years of global oil oversupply, oil ministers said on Wednesday, just over a week before the group meets in Vienna to discuss supply policy.

Opec, non-member Russia and nine other producers agreed to curb oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018. They are expected to extend the deal at a November 30 meeting in Vienna.

Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is lobbying oil ministers to extend output cuts by nine months, sources familiar with the matter said.

Opec has been successful in bringing global oil inventories closer to their five-year average, but the group needs more time to tighten supply further, he said.

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Read more:

Oil prices firm on expected extension to OPEC output cuts 

Fuel consumption falls across the region

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The oil market has found some balance as inventories decline, Venezuela's oil minister Eulogio Del Pino said on the sidelines of a gas exporter meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on Wednesday. He put the optimal price for crude at between US$60 and $70 dollars a barrel to encourage investment.

US crude hit a two-year high of $58.05 a barrel on Wednesday, while Brent crude rose 55 cents, or 0.9 per cent, to $63.12 a barrel.

Rising US shale oil production has made it harder for Opec to reduce the global glut. US output hit a weekly record this week at more than 9.6 million bpd, approaching the 10 million bpd monthly record output levels reached in the 1970s.

The gas market, which is also facing oversupply due to growing output of shale gas and rising production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), could find a balance around 2025 after the excess of supply peaks in 2020, analysts said.

The chairman of Spain's Repsol, Antonio Brufau, said the global gas market is undergoing a deep transformation with rising LNG supply, lower production costs and traditional suppliers considering non-conventional projects such as shale.

"LNG is shaking up the market," he said.

Ten10 Cricket League

Venue and schedule Sharjah Cricket Stadium, December 14 to 17

Teams

Maratha Arabians Leading player: Virender Sehwag; Top picks: Mohammed Amir, Imad Wasim; UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Zahoor Khan

Bengal Lions Leading player: Sarfraz Ahmed; Top picks: Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman; UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Rameez Shahzad

Kerala Kings Leading player: Eoin Morgan; Top picks: Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir; UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Imran Haider

Pakhtoons Leading player: Shahid Afridi; Top picks: Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal; UAE players: Amjad Javed, Saqlain Haider

Punjabi Legends Leading player: Shoaib Malik; Top picks: Hasan Ali, Chris Jordan; UAE players: Ghulam Shabber, Shareef Asadullah

Team Sri Lanka Cricket Will be made up of Colombo players who won island’s domestic limited-overs competition

Results

5.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Al Battar, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer).

6.05pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Good Fighter, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

6.40pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Way Of Wisdom, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.

7.15pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m; Winner: Immortalised, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.

7.50pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Franz Kafka, James Doyle, Simon Crisford.

8.25pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Mayadeen, Connor Beasley, Doug Watson.

9pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Chiefdom, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.