Full compliance with agreed oil output cuts remains the core of OPEC's collective efforts, Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stressed on Thursday.
“Overproduction damages OPEC's reputation,” the minister added.
“All compensations for overproduction should be completed before year-end.”
The comments by Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman came during his chairing of OPEC's 22nd Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), the body responsible for monitoring production cuts.
He indicated that in the face of uncertainty, the market will increasingly look to OPEC, and that discipline and commitment to the production cut agreement must be shown by the members, and that the group is active and working proactively and is ready to work when the need arises.
Prince Abdulaziz told the gathering OPEC+ could hold an extraordinary meeting in October if the oil market soured because of weak demand and rising coronavirus cases, Reuters reported, citing an OPEC+ source.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in his opening remarks to an OPEC+ panel online meeting on Thursday urged participants in the group’s oil reduction pact to fully comply with their promised cuts.
He also said that the monitoring panel should discuss the impact of the coronavirus crisis as oil markets have been recovering with difficulty.
In other news, OPEC+ warned that rising COVID-19 cases in some countries could curb energy demand despite initial indications of a decline in oil stocks.
The panel did not recommend any changes to their current output reduction target of 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd), or around 8% of global demand.
OPEC+ has been reducing production since January 2017 to help to support prices and reduce global oil stockpiles. They increased their cuts to a record 9.7 million bpd from May to July after demand plunged due to the coronavirus crisis.
The panel also pressed laggards to cut more barrels to compensate for overproduction in May-July while extending the compensation period from September to the end of December.
The panel said cumulative overproduction has reached 2.38 million bpd from May until August.
