Saudi Arabia and Russia call for OPEC+ cohesiveness with supply cuts

Saudi Arabia’s new Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stressed the importance of maintaining a high degree of “cohesiveness” among OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the 16th OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee in Abu Dhabi .

The producers are discussing whether there is a need to deepen OPEC's current policy of cutting output to support the oil market. OPEC and non-members had agreed in 2017 to begin reducing their output.

In December members and non-members announced a supply reduction of 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1 this year.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak agreed that the goal of OPEC+ should be to maintain its compliance with the cuts, adding that the goal should be to stabilize the oil market, achieve balance and increase predictability. He said that that the key challenge remains for all countries to commit to fulfilling the OPEC+ commitments.

Russia is the largest OPEC+ producer, a group of 10 non-OPEC nations which have joined with OPEC to coordinate policy. OPEC is made up of 15 oil producers including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Venezuela, and Nigeria.

Novak added that the joint actions of OPEC and OPEC+ will have a positive impact on the world oil market.

Mohammed Barkindo, the Secretary General of OPEC, welcomed Prince Abdulaziz to the committee, and paid tribute to Khalid al-Falih, the previous Saudi Arabian minister of energy, for his work over the past three years.