Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have agreed to consider trimming aggregate member production by as much as 740,000 b/d in response to a halving over the past 2 years in the price of crude oil.
Crude prices jumped more than $2/bbl in New York on London in response to the news but remained below $50/bbl (OGJ Online, Sept. 29, 2016).
At an extraordinary meeting in Algiers, they said a group production target of 32.5-33.0 million b/d would “accelerate the ongoing drawdown of the stock overhang and bring the rebalancing [of the oil market] forward.”
The OPEC Secretariat, customarily citing “secondary sources,” this month reported average total production by group members in August of 33.24 million b/d.
In Algiers, OPEC ministers said a committee of representatives from member countries would recommend production levels of individual members and develop a framework for consultations with oil-producing countries outside OPEC.
The consultations would include “identifying risks and taking proactive measures that would ensure a balanced oil market on a sustained basis, to be considered at the November OPEC conference.”
That meeting will be Nov. 30 in Vienna.