Members of the OPEC group of oil producers and their partners are meeting via videoconference Monday to decide production levels for February, which it hopes to continue boosting.
Members of the OPEC group of oil producers and their partners are meeting via videoconference Monday to decide production levels for February, which it hopes to continue boosting.
The OPEC+ ministerial meeting comes after the Covid-19 pandemic tanked the market for crude in 2020 and had a delayed start, finally kicking off at around 1530 GMT.
Despite a slight recovery of prices towards the end of last year, the 13 members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, and their ten allies, led by Russia, are still suffering under a highly volatile market.
After their last videoconference summit, held from November 30 to December 3, the OPEC+ members agreed to raise production levels by half a million barrels per day in January.
At the same meeting, OPEC+ agreed to meet at the beginning of each month to decide on any adjustments to production volumes for the following month.
That agreement “paved the way for a gradual return of 2 million barrels per day to the market over the coming months,” OPEC’s general secretary, Mohammed Barkindo, said on Sunday.
Analyst Helima Croft from RBC said on Monday that given continuing uncertainty over coronavirus vaccine rollouts and climbing infection figures in many countries, OPEC and its allies would “likely play it safe and forego any additional output increase for now”.
Speaking at the beginning of Monday’s meeting, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told his counterparts that “as we see light at the end of the tunnel, we must at all costs avoid the temptation to slacken off in our resolve”.
