OPEC NEWS

• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers that have agreed to cut production reached 98 percent “conformity” with their targets in March, versus 94 percent in February, the oil producers’ group said in a statement on its website on April 28. The next joint OPEC and non-OPEC monitoring committee is to meet in Vienna on May 24, a day before the OPEC ministerial meeting.
• Iraq’s oil production is nearing the plateau of 5 million barrels per day (bpd) and the country will not stop investing in its oil industry even if crude prices reach $10 a barrel, Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said at a summit in Paris on April 27. Iraq’s oil reserves have grown recently by 10 billion barrels and the country could add 15 billion in future, he said. On extending the production cuts deal, he told reporters: “I see there is a tendency for extension.”
• Iran deserves to increase its oil production “significantly,” Deputy Petroleum Minister Rokneddin Javadi said at the oil summit in Paris on April 27. Iran’s oil-production capacity is at 4 million bpd and it is targeting 5.7 million bpd of oil and condensate capacity, he said. The country expects to award its first oil and natural gas deals to international oil companies within a month, he said.
• The French oil company, Total, may sign a contract with Iran to develop the South Pars gas field before summer if it is allowed by international laws, its CEO Patrick Pouyanne told journalists at the International Oil Summit in Paris. The final investment decision on the project would come six months after the contract is signed because it takes time to launch tenders for suppliers, he said.
• Angola, an OPEC member, has been implementing the oil-output cuts “scrupulously” and it has lowered its total production of crude by 78,000 bpd, its Oil Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said at the summit. Current oil prices are unsatisfactory and the fair oil price should be around $60 a barrel, he said. The West African nation is still planning to increase its capacity to 1.8 million bpd by 2020 as it has many marginal fields whose reserves are above 4 billion barrels, he said.
• The oil market is moving toward rebalancing, with the OPEC cuts since the start of the year having accelerated this process, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said at the summit in Paris. Oil demand will continue to grow at healthy levels for the foreseeable future and the idea of peak oil demand is as misleading as theories about peak oil supply, he said.

Source: Arab News