“OPEC estimates that oil prices will never return to the levels before November 2014, regardless of whether OPEC will cut down production or not”, Xu said, adding “traditional hydrocarbons will not keep their dominant position” on the market. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told the media at a global energy summit in Moscow that the Saudis “have the ability to raise output significantly”.
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Citing what Saudi oil officials have described as an expected increase in global demand this year, state-owned Saudi Aramco is planning to increase daily Saudi oil production despite an worldwide oil glut. Iran officials didn’t attend April’s meeting.
In its latest monthly report, the IEA predicted OPEC’s crude production would rise to average 33.15 million b/d in the second half of 2016, a gain of 600,000 b/d from the first quarter and 1.1 million b/d higher than OPEC’s average crude output previous year.
Xu said Russian Federation and China have a lot of influence on the supply and demand in the global energy market.
Bemoaning recent calls for production rate caps from its longtime foe, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh ridiculed Riyadh’s demands for an Iranian daily production cap as the nation attempts to regain market share following years of sanctions.
Iran’s oil production has reached 3.4 million barrels per day and Tehran plans to increase it by another 400,000 to 500,000 barrels per day by the end of the year, therefore it will not agree to freezing production, said Mina. In further criticizing attempts to limit Iranian production, Zangeneh continued, “If Iran’s crude oil production falls, it will be overtaken considerably by the neighboring countries”. Between 1998 and 2008, OPEC made 27 changes to output. This regional power struggle for petroleum supremacy not only affects the region and its balance of power but also threatens to have a long-lasting and highly destabilizing impact on the world’s energy market.
OPEC’s national representatives – officials representing the 13 member countries – plus officials from OPEC’s Vienna secretariat – met to discuss the market.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) appears to be losing its grip on the global oil taps as Iran takes steps to regain its market share and USA shale oil keeps prices down, Chinese experts told Sputnik.
“I think we can expect [no production freeze] from this meeting and the result from the past three meetings has been a big dive in oil prices”.
From next month, the IEA’s closely-watched monthly Oil Market Report could contain a scenario for OPEC crude output through to the end of 2017, Neil Atkinson, head of the IEA’s oil market division, told Platts.
“OPEC can’t go out and fight on behalf of others”, he said.
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The tensions come amid a backdrop of worsening relations between Riyadh and Tehran, which are fighting proxy wars in the Middle East, including in Yemen and Syria.
