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OPEC+ to stick with

current deal to end of 2023

SAUDI ARABIA OPEC+ will stick with the deal agreed in Octo- forecast following China’s relaxation of COVID-
ber until the end of the year, according to the 19 restrictions.
group’s de-facto head, Saudi Arabian Energy Prince Abdulaziz said: “No matter what
Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud. trends you are looking at, if you follow the
In an interview with Energy Aspects, he cautious approach, not only would you see the
said that he remained cautious about Chinese beginning of a positive trend to emerge but you
demand forecasts and the producer group would need to make sure that these positive signals of
not raise output based solely on initial signals. this market can be sustained.”
“The agreement that we struck in October is He added: “The Chinese economy’s unlock-
here to stay for the rest of the year, period,” he ing and because of that you will have demand
said. and what have you, but we all went through
The October deal saw OPEC reduce its allo- cycles of openings and lockdowns and therefore
cated production level from 26.7mn barrels per what assurances (would we have) and the world
day by a ‘voluntary adjustment’ of 1.27mn bpd have that none of what we went through, all of us,
to 25.4mn bpd, while its non-OPEC partners every country, will not be repeated?”
cut production by just over 700,000 bpd. Saudi Meanwhile, he said that the US’ decision to
Arabia and Russia each made a voluntary cut of release oil from its strategic petroleum reserves
526,000 bpd, though in reality, Russian produc- (SPR) last year was the fault of the Paris-based
tion had already been hampered by a shrinking International Energy Agency (IEA), which fore-
market for its crude following Western restric- cast that Russian oil production would drop
tions on purchases. by 3mn bpd. “The IEA was responsible for it
While Russia announced last week that it because of the screaming and scaring that they
would reduce oil production by 500,000 bpd, had done on how much Russia will lose in terms
OPEC this week increased its global demand of its production,” he said.™

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