Saudi Arabia says OPEC wants to avoid both supply shortfall and glut

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman on Wednesday said that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is committed to ensuring the availability of adequate crude oil supply in the global market.

“Our meeting here in Vienna will review a wide range of options, including bringing additional supplies to the market,” Prince Abdulaziz said at the 7th OPEC International Seminar.

“Our shared task is, therefore, to ensure that there is no supply shortfall at any point of time, while concurrently avoiding a damaging supply glut or inventory overhang,” he added.

A meeting of OPEC is scheduled for Friday, where the members are expected to discuss the future policy measures for the output-cut agreement – which expires at the end of this year.

OPEC’s non-member allies will join the discussions on Saturday.

“As part of our deliberation, we will assess not only current supply-demand fundamentals, but also the outlook for remainder of this year as well as next year,” Prince Abdulaziz said.

The minister added that the global oil market has seen demand growth of about 1.5 percent over that past several years and given the momentum, similar level of growth can be expected in the future.

Write to Nadeshda Zareen at nadeshda.zareen@argaamplus.com