Saudi Arabia's minister of energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman arrives at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Saudi Arabia's minister of energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman arrives at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Saudi Arabia's minister of energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman arrives at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Saudi Arabia's minister of energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman arrives at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

The worst is over for oil markets, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister says


Fareed Rahman
  • English
  • Arabic

Oil markets have overcome the steepest declines in terms of demand but the Opec+ group of producers remains vigilant, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said on Monday, as oil prices continue to fall on rising coronavirus cases in many countries.

“I guess the worst part is over,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at the online India Energy Forum by CERAWeek on Monday. “We are very much vigilant. There is a big shift altogether in terms of where we are today and where we were in April and May.”

Opec+, the producer alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to historic curbs of 9.7m bpd between May and July after the pandemic-induced mobility restrictions forced energy demand to plummet to record lows. The group plans to taper cuts and has been holding back 7.7 million barrels per day from August to help balance demand and supply. Production is set to increase again in January as part of the gradual easing of supply curbs.

“The discipline we put together as Opec+ is very assuring to the market. I would attribute it to everybody who is part of Opec+. This time we were different.”

The group said at a meeting earlier this month that it achieved an overall conformity level of 102 per cent with supply cuts, which is the highest since May, excluding voluntary commitments made by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.

Laggard producers within the group also made up for shortfalls in September by drawing back a total of 249,000 bpd to compensate for earlier overproduction.

“The compensation scheme is to add a serious notion to the enforceability of the agreement [and] supports others to continue their obligation. It also ensures the market trusts the deal and believes in the deal,” Prince Abdulaziz said.

He also argued the producers' group is “not anti-shale”, saying the world needs all forms of energy including shale oil, tar sands, coal, conventional oil and gas and renewables.

Oil prices fell on Monday on demand concerns as coronavirus cases continued to increase in the US and Europe.

Brent crude prices were 3.3 per cent lower at $40.39 per barrel, while key US gauge West Texas Intermediate was 3.4 per cent lower at $38.49 per barrel at 8.47pm UAE time.

Libya’s plans to increase oil production to 1 million barrels per day in the next four weeks also weighed on oil prices.

Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

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