Kuwait: A joint committee of ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers has agreed to review whether a global pact to limit supplies should be extended by six months, it said in a statement yesterday.
An earlier draft of the statement said the committee “reports high level of conformity and recommends six-month extension”. But the final statement said only that the committee had requested a technical group and the Opec Secretariat “review the oil market conditions and revert ... in April, 2017 regarding the extension of the voluntary production adjustments”.
It was not immediately clear why the wording had been changed, although a senior industry source said the committee lacked the legal mandate to recommend an extension. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and rival oil-producing nations were meeting in Kuwait to review progress with their global pact to cut supplies.
Opec and 11 other leading producers including Russia agreed in December to cut their combined output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of the year.
The original deal was to last six months, with the possibility of a six-month extension. “Any country has the freedom to say whether they do or they don’t support (an extension). Unless we have conformity with everybody, we cannot go ahead with the extension of the deal,” Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq said, adding that he hoped a decision would come by the end of April.
The December accord, aimed at supporting the oil market, has lifted crude to more than $50 a barrel.
