• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (MMC) plan to meet Saturday and Sunday in Kuwait to discuss compliance with the agreement, which was agreed in December, to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day. The committee will be chaired by Kuwait and include Russia, Oman, Algeria, and Venezuela.
* The OPEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC) — which monitors the production levels of the 11 OPEC members and the 11 non-OPEC countries participating in the supply-cut agreement — met on Friday in Vienna. It concluded that the 11 OPEC members implemented 106 percent of pledged cuts in February, compared with 94 percent for January, according to delegates who attended the meeting. OPEC members and their non-OPEC allies had a combined compliance rate of 94 percent in February compared with 86 percent in January.
• Kuwait supports the extension of the supply-cut agreement beyond June, when the deal ends, as it will take more time for the market to rebalance and for oil prices to return to acceptable levels, Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouq said last Monday. He sees oil stocks raised by 280 million barrels over the past two years and it will take time for these stocks to go down and not in “one or two months.”
• OPEC and its allies may prolong production cuts after they expire in June if the world’s crude inventories remain excessive, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said last week. The curbs will be sustained if stockpiles are “still above the five-year average, if the markets are still not confident in the outlook, if we don’t see companies and investors feel good about the health of the global oil industry,” Al-Falih said in a Bloomberg television interview in Washington on Thursday. “We want to signal to them that we’re going to do what it takes to bring the industry back to a healthy situation.”
• OPEC released its monthly oil report on Tuesday. The report shows members are getting closer to full implementation of the cutbacks agreement, with output falling in February by 139,500 barrels a day to 31.958 million, according to data from six agencies referred to as “secondary sources.”
• Saudi Arabia told OPEC it raised output back above 10 million barrels a day in February, reversing about a third of the cuts it made the previous month. The Kingdom, which had curbed supplies by more than required in January to lead the way in an accord to re-balance world markets, boosted production by 263,300 barrels a day to 10.011 million, according to the OPEC monthly report. That figure, submitted by Riyadh, jarred with OPEC’s own estimates, which showed Saudi production falling further last month to 9.8 million barrels a day.
• While OPEC’s delivery of its promised cuts slipped slightly last month from 105 percent in January as Saudi Arabia revived some of its production, a compliance rate of 91 percent showed a “solid” level of commitment, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report on Wednesday. The 11 nations cooperating with OPEC in the accord, led by Russia, implemented 40 percent of the 558,000 barrel-a-day cutback they promised in January, and compliance probably slipped slightly last month, the agency estimated.
• Iran is ready to maintain production at 3.8 million barrels a day in the second half of this year if OPEC decides to extend output cuts from June to end of year, IRNA reported Tuesday, citing Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
* The OPEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC) — which monitors the production levels of the 11 OPEC members and the 11 non-OPEC countries participating in the supply-cut agreement — met on Friday in Vienna. It concluded that the 11 OPEC members implemented 106 percent of pledged cuts in February, compared with 94 percent for January, according to delegates who attended the meeting. OPEC members and their non-OPEC allies had a combined compliance rate of 94 percent in February compared with 86 percent in January.
• Kuwait supports the extension of the supply-cut agreement beyond June, when the deal ends, as it will take more time for the market to rebalance and for oil prices to return to acceptable levels, Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouq said last Monday. He sees oil stocks raised by 280 million barrels over the past two years and it will take time for these stocks to go down and not in “one or two months.”
• OPEC and its allies may prolong production cuts after they expire in June if the world’s crude inventories remain excessive, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said last week. The curbs will be sustained if stockpiles are “still above the five-year average, if the markets are still not confident in the outlook, if we don’t see companies and investors feel good about the health of the global oil industry,” Al-Falih said in a Bloomberg television interview in Washington on Thursday. “We want to signal to them that we’re going to do what it takes to bring the industry back to a healthy situation.”
• OPEC released its monthly oil report on Tuesday. The report shows members are getting closer to full implementation of the cutbacks agreement, with output falling in February by 139,500 barrels a day to 31.958 million, according to data from six agencies referred to as “secondary sources.”
• Saudi Arabia told OPEC it raised output back above 10 million barrels a day in February, reversing about a third of the cuts it made the previous month. The Kingdom, which had curbed supplies by more than required in January to lead the way in an accord to re-balance world markets, boosted production by 263,300 barrels a day to 10.011 million, according to the OPEC monthly report. That figure, submitted by Riyadh, jarred with OPEC’s own estimates, which showed Saudi production falling further last month to 9.8 million barrels a day.
• While OPEC’s delivery of its promised cuts slipped slightly last month from 105 percent in January as Saudi Arabia revived some of its production, a compliance rate of 91 percent showed a “solid” level of commitment, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report on Wednesday. The 11 nations cooperating with OPEC in the accord, led by Russia, implemented 40 percent of the 558,000 barrel-a-day cutback they promised in January, and compliance probably slipped slightly last month, the agency estimated.
• Iran is ready to maintain production at 3.8 million barrels a day in the second half of this year if OPEC decides to extend output cuts from June to end of year, IRNA reported Tuesday, citing Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
