The main takeaway from Thursday’s event is that nothing has really changed since the December OPEC meeting, which effectively imposed no restrictions on members at all.
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Meanwhile, according to the sources, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose a new collective ceiling in an attempt to fix OPEC’s waning importance and end the market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment.
Other delegates stayed neutral to the issue, pointing to improvement in oil price.
“From the beginning of the year until now, the market has been correcting itself upward”, U.A.E. oil minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told reporters in the Austrian capital on Tuesday. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-Opec Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.
As the ministers gathered in Vienna, comments by some suggested that the oil cartel would send a message of unity on regulating the market after not being able to do so for years.
Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Zanganeh emphasized Iran’s support for the return of quota system maintaining “production ceiling would not benefit any members of OPEC as each member states needs to have a specific quota”.
“Without country quotas, Opec can not control anything”, Zanganeh told reporters.
Saudi Arabia was pumping at an average of 10.25 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in May, slightly up from 10.15 million bpd in April, a Reuters survey showed.
Wall Street slipped. In 12.02 pm NY trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 percent.
“What this means for US oil producers and mineral owners is that the petroleum markets lack conviction and will continue to have volatility and price weakness until such time as a shortage of supplies compared to demand becomes evident in the inventory levels and is sustained”, he said. On Thursday, Brent prices eased 1.5% to $49 per barrel.
“We will continue to interact in the format of a dialogue between energy ministries. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market”, Ross added.
Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest oil producer, had announced a future roadmap which is independent of oil rates and the Saud national Aramco going for the stock option plan. “I believe it is too early to predict a crack in the current OPEC policy, but pressure is increasing”.
“There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, Opec might intervene and yet other situations – such as long-term growth of marginal barrels – in which case it should not”, Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting.
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MOSCOW, June 3 Global oil markets are heading towards rebalancing, Qatar’s Energy Minister told reporters in Moscow on Friday, a day after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree a clear oil output strategy at a meeting in Vienna.
