Oil&Gas Buisiness OGB 27 Internet | Page 50

english issue Oil Market OPEC suffers in silence By Lies Sahar In spite of the drop in oil price fewer than 50 dollars, the OPEC countries remain optimistic about the target aiming at rebalancing the market, even if this must take time. Otherwise, how to construe the conclusions of the Monitoring Committee, gathering representatives of OPEC and non OPEC countries, about the implementation of oil production cut. During its last meeting held on June 22 nd in Vienna, OPEC and non OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) declared that, on the basis of the report of the OPEC and Non- OPEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC) for the month of May 2017, OPEC and non – OPEC participating countries recorded the highest conformity with their intentional production adjustments, reaching a level of 106%. In the official statement, the Committee “expressed its great satisfaction regarding the regular increase in the total levels of conformity of OPEC and non-OPEC participating oil producers from January to May 2017, exceeding 100% in April and in May to reach its highest level since January 2017.” Adding that “In May 2017, OPEC and non -OPEC participating countries reached a level of conformity of 106 percent, that is to say an increase of 4 percentage points compared to the performance of April 2017. “ For the Committee, “It is about a convincing demonstration of the willingness of all the participating countries to continue their co-operation until the set objective is reached.” And concerning this objective, the Committee estimated that the market is making progress in the right way, declaring that it “noticed the recent development of the market and has confidence in the progress of the oil market in the right way which will enable the fulfillment of the objectives of the Co-operation Declaration and encourage all the participating countries to put pressure on the total conformity and to maintain this level for the benefit of the producers and the consumers”. The Monitoring Committee is optimistic It should be reminded that the second joint ministerial meeting of the OPEC and non OPEC oil producing countries decided on May 25th to prolong the oil production cut of 1.8 million barrels per day for more nine months starting from July 1st, 2017. This position expressed by the Joint Technical Committee is based on the fact that the oil producing countries do not expect a rebalancing of the market before the first half of the next year. The next meeting of the Joint Committee, which will be held in Saint-Petersburg, in Russia, on July 24th , 2017 could result again in the same conclusions as those expressed on June 22 nd in Vienna. As a reminder, the Committee is composed of the Ministers of Kuwait, Russia, Venezuela, Algeria and Oman. However, debates already took place on the poss