Reuters reports three sources from the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries as saying that the group’s next ministerial meeting is unlikely to result in any major policy shifts.
At its next meeting of the joint ministerial monitoring committee (JMMC), which it will hold online, OPEC+ will assess the state of the oil markets, but one of the sources said this would just check the pulse of the market.
With falling inventories and ongoing tensions in the Middle East, crude oil has risen in price to around $85 per barrel, but further gains have been hindered by concerns over demand and interest rates remaining higher for longer than expected.
The OPEC+ group is currently withholding some 5.86 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production in order to support prices. This is equivalent to about 5.7% of the world’s demand for oil, although this has been offset to an extent by growing production in the US and Guyana, where ExxonMobil, the maker of the Mobil lubricant and coolant range, operates a number of assets.
The current plan is to start unrolling the most recent 2.2 million bpd of cuts from October. When asked if the market could accommodate the extra volume, Alexander Novak, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, hinted that the agreement could be tweaked if needed, saying:
“Now we have such an option [of output increase], as we said earlier, we will always evaluate the current situation.”
The JMMC makes recommendations that are then put to a full ministerial meeting of all the OPEC+ members.
