ABU DHABI: United Arab Emirates Minister for Energy Suhail al-Mazroui said Monday that he expected OPEC and non-OPEC countries to extend global supply cuts at a closely-watched meeting at the end of the month.
Speaking at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition Conference (ADIPEC), al-Mazroui said: “My prediction is OPEC will continue to do what it takes to rebalance the market.” He added that while he had not heard any OPEC members discussing the possibility of not extending the deal, the time and duration of an extension was still to be decided.
OPEC members are reportedly forming a consensus around extending by nine months their production cutting deal with other crude exporters. That would prolong the agreement among OPEC, Russia and other oil-producing nations to keep 1.8 million barrels a day off the market through the whole of next year.
The exporters reached the deal last December and have already extended the agreement once through March 2018.