Page 8 - MEOG Week 01 2021

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

OPEC picks new secretary

general as restrictions ease

OPEC OPEC this week elected its new secretary-gen- he said.
eral, voting in Kuwaiti industry veteran Haitham Al-Ghais’ appointment was welcomed by
al-Ghais, who will replace Nigerian Mohammed Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Sal-
Barkindo in August. man, who offered his “cordial congratulations”.
His election was announced a day before the Meanwhile, he was quoted by Al Arabiya as
group and its OPEC+ partners decided to pro- saying that he expects global oil demand to reach
ceed with their planned easing of output restric- pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.
tions in February. With OPEC+ having been nervous about the
Al-Ghais told Reuters that supporting “the impact of the mutating coronavirus (COVID-
continuation of this Declaration of Co-opera- 19) when it last met, a JTC report on January 2
tion” into 2023 is one of his top priorities. played down the impact of the Omicron variant.
“It’s in the wider interest of the industry and It said Omicron “is expected to be mild
all the 23 countries that have signed up to this and short-lived, as the world becomes better
agreement,” he added, noting that he would work equipped to manage COVID-19 and its related
to “preserve and nurture” relations with Russia. challenges”, suggesting that the group was
The secretary-general-elect spoke of his unlikely to make any knee-jerk reactions.
“unwavering” commitment to the Joint Techni- This indeed turned out to be the case when
cal Committee (JTC) and the Joint Ministerial the group reached a quick decision on January
Monitoring Committee (JMMC). 4, proceeding with plans to ease production cuts
“I have hands-on experience of what the by a further 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) next
JTC does, what the JMMC does. I’ve attended month. However, with some members having
all these meetings since 2017, I haven’t missed struggled to reach their targets, only a fraction
a single meeting, even when I had a broken leg,” of this is seen making its way on to the market.™

Targets (mbpd) Baseline (mbpd)
January 2022 February 2022 Until end May 2022 May 2022 onwards
OPEC
Algeria 0.972 0.982 1.057 1.057
Angola 1.406 1.421 1.528 1.528
Congo (Brazzaville) 0.3 0.303 0.325 0.325
Equatorial Guinea 0.117 0.118 0.127 0.127
Gabon 0.172 0.173 0.187 0.187
Iran Exempt Exempt Exempt Exempt
Iraq 4.281 4.325 4.653 4.803
Kuwait 2.585 2.612 2.809 2.959
Libya Exempt Exempt Exempt Exempt
Nigeria 1.683 1.701 1.829 1.829
Saudi Arabia 10.122 10.227 11.000 11.500
UAE 2.916 2.946 3.168 3.500
Venezuela Exempt Exempt Exempt Exempt
Total 24.554 24.808 26.683 27.815

Non-OPEC
Azerbaijan 0.661 0.668 0.718 0.718
Bahrain 0.189 0.191 0.205 0.205
Brunei 0.094 0.095 0.102 0.102
Kazakhstan 1.572 1.589 1.709 1.709
Malaysia 0.548 0.554 0.595 0.595
Mexico 1.753 1.753 Exempt Exempt
Oman 0.812 0.821 0.883 0.883
Russia 10.122 10.227 11.000 11.500
Sudan 0.069 0.07 0.075 0.075
South Sudan 0.119 0.121 0.130 0.130
Total 15.939 16.089 15.417 15.917
OPEC+ 40.493 40.897 42.1 43.732

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 05•January•2022