Vienna (EFE).- A committee of the OPEC+ oil alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, is holding a teleconference this Monday to analyze the situation in the market, after several of its members announced yesterday Sunday unexpected “voluntary” cuts in your pumping.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Iraq and Oman will withdraw just over a million barrels per day (mbd) from the market starting in May, a reduction that will be added to the 2 mbd cut in force for five months.
Saudi Arabia has agreed to cut 500,000 bd, the Emirates 144,000, Kuwait 128,000, Iraq 211,000 and Oman 40,000.
This is a “precautionary measure” adopted “in coordination with some other countries participating in OPEC+” with the aim of “supporting the stability of the oil market”, indicated the Saudi and Emirati agencies.
With these “voluntary” cuts, the joint official OPEC+ quota that has been in force since November 1, of 41.85 mbd, will be reduced to 40.83 mbd.
Surprising cuts for analysts
The measure has come as a surprise in markets where most analysts had said they did not expect OPEC+ to change extraction levels at this time.
Amid recent banking turmoil in the United States and Switzerland, Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak had reaffirmed their commitment to the current cut.
Meeting on March 16 in Riyadh to prepare for Monday’s meeting of the Joint Ministerial Oversight Committee (JMMC), Novak and Bin Salman also highlighted their intention to strengthen bilateral relations between their two countries.
After falling on March 20 to less than 71 dollars for the first time since 2021 due to the banking crisis, the price of a barrel of Brent has returned to the upward trend until it touched 80 dollars last Friday.
Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI), which had fallen to below $68, closed March at $75.67/barrel.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) and OPEC estimate that the global supply of crude oil will greatly exceed demand in the current semester and will accelerate as the year progresses, reaching a record consumption of around 102 mbd.