COMUNICACIONES / NOTICIAS
Caracas.- The second ministerial meeting of member and non member producing countries of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was held on Thursday, in Vienna, Austria. Ministers of the 24 countries that signed the Agreement decided to extend the production adjustment by another 9 months.
At a press conference, the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia Khalid Al-Falih, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo, and the Minister of Energy of Russia Alexander Novak, outlined the progress of the joint agreement signed December 10th, 2016 in Vienna.
Minister Novak said that cooperation between OPEC and non OPEC countries will continue, as it has produced positive results. And cooperation should go a step further: "not only in the markets, but also at a technical level; we discussed it and we will carry it out”, he said.
"Over the past five months we have seen high performance and this has had a positive impact on the global market reducing volatility and starting the process of reducing inventories”, said the Russian minister.
He also said that in order to achieve the goal of rebalancing the market, an additional nine months will be required, so parties to the Agreement decided to extend the oil adjustment until April 1, 2018 while continuing to analyze the market.
This agreement to adjust production by around 1.8 million barrels of oil per day in the first half of this year, has helped to drain excess crude oil inventories and boost prices this year above $ 50 a barrel.
Energy Minister of Saudi Arabia Khalid al-Falih, said that this meeting and the 172nd Meeting of the OPEC Conference, which was also held on Thursday, were "very positive". The goal is "to reduce inventories and stabilize crude prices. We have seen 24 countries united with great solidarity in order to extend this adjustment. The long-term trend is going to be very healthy and will help us handle the oil market”, he said.
OPEC and non-OPEC ministers agreed that the next meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee shall be held in July, in the Russian Federation, and the Ministerial meeting in November of this year.
