Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman revealed that further cooperation between oil producing countries could lead to the extension of the OPEC+ agreement until the end of 2022.
Oil markets still have not exited from the “coronavirus tunnel” and the OPEC+ production cut deal may extend to the end of 2022, the minister said in statements broadcast on television on Thursday.
He said that a meeting by the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) will be held every month until the oil market sees a full recovery from the pandemic.
“The deal will continue until April 2022, it’s clearly mentioned in the agreement that a further meeting to be held in December (2021) to discuss the need of extending the deal until the end of 2022,” he said.
He stressed the importance of compliance with agreed quotas from all members, adding that without compliance, countries that fulfilled their commitments may not agree to cut their production subsequently.
The minister described the decision that the Kingdom has taken last March after the collapse of OPEC+ negotiations to extend the oil cuts as "tough but the right decision."
He expressed satisfaction towards the last meeting, saying that some non-committed states had given serious promises. The energy minister also praised the Iraqi government for the cooperation it displayed, in addition to efforts exhibited by Kazakhstan and even Russia which slashes its production by 2.5 million barrels.
The minister said that Russia had helped the organization a great deal and that there is political and sovereign support for the cuts.
In other news, Saudi Arabia's total oil exports, including crude and oil products, fell to 7.48 million barrels per day (bpd) in May from 11.34 million bpd in April, official data showed on Thursday.
Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of OPEC to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), which publishes them on its website.
