The OPEC+ alliance plans to stick with an oil deal agreed to by the end of 2022 for the rest of the year, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said, reinforcing earlier signals from the group.
In October, OPEC and its partners took the unusual step of assigning fixed production targets for a full year. Top officials have indicated they intend to leave quotas unchanged through 2023, with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman’s comments the strongest yet.
“The deal we reached in October is here to stay for the rest of the year, period,” the prince told Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd., during an interview with Riyadh on February 14. “You need to make sure that the emergence of these positive signals in the market can be sustained.”
Before the interview — which was published on the Energy Aspects website — Prince Abdulaziz had already indicated that the bar for OPEC intervention will be high. He said earlier this month in Riyadh that regarding production adjustments, “I’ll believe it when I see it and then I’ll take action.”
The United Arab Emirates, another key OPEC nation, also suggested this week that there is little need for the group to alter course. Global oil supply and demand are evenly matched, with comfortable inventories and crude oil price levels “a testament to balance,” Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told Bloomberg TV in Dubai.
–With the help of Paul Wallace.
