OPEC news

• OPEC and Non-OPEC ministerial monitoring committee plans to meet on March 25-26 in Kuwait to discuss compliance of world’s top oil producers with output cuts deal to remove 1.8m bpd of oil from markets that was agreed on in December. Committee chaired by Kuwait includes Russia, Oman, Algeria and Venezuela.
• Kuwaiti Oil Minister Issam Al-Marzooq said last Monday in Kuwait City that OPEC members’ compliance rate with cuts is 92 percent, non-OPEC is 50 percent. He sees oil prices now at good levels and expects them to increase with more compliance from producers.
• OPEC released its monthly oil report last Monday. Report shows OPEC members’ production fell in January by 890,000 bpd from December. OPEC revised global oil demand this year by 35,000 bpd from previous month’s estimates.
• Saudi Arabia told OPEC it reduced its output in January by 718,000 bpd, the highest monthly reduction in eight years.
• Top officials from OPEC and IEA met at IEF headquarters in Riyadh on Wednesday for an annual symposium on Energy Outlooks. Dr. Sun Xiansheng, the IEF secretary-general, Mohammed Sansui Barkindo, the OPEC secretary-general, Dr. Kamel Ben Naceur, director, sustainability, technology and outlooks of the IEA, attended the event. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih delivered a keynote speech.
• OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said in his speech at IEF symposium that oil markets maybe moving from contango to backwardation in H2, a sign that markets will finally recover from its worst glut in 30 years. “We are moving in the right direction,” says in speech posted on OPEC’s website. Global spending on exploration and production fell $300 billion during 2015-2016, he said.
• Libya’s crude production exceeded 700,000 bpd and it plans to raise it to 1.2 million bpd by August and 1.7 million by March 2018, Jadalla Alaokali, board member of Libya’s National Oil Corp., told Bloomberg in an interview in Cairo on Thursday.