VIENNA, July 1 — Oil prices jumped today after Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-member Russia agreed to keep daily oil output caps, but Iran warned the move risks killing off the cartel that pumps a third of global supplies.
Ministers from the 14-nation Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meet in Vienna today to discuss output, before gathering a day later for Opec+ — which is a grouping of 24 oil-producing countries that includes Russia and accounts for almost half of global crude.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia grabbed the headlines on Saturday with an agreement to extend a deal which aims to keep oil output low in order to soak up abundant supplies.
Putin announced that the pair agreed on the sidelines of the G20 in Osaka on an extension of between six and nine months.
The news sent New York oil prices shooting above US$60 (RM248.2) per barrel today for the first time since May, with sentiment also buoyed by rising global stock markets following the US-China trade truce.
However, the Osaka news sparked consternation among some major oil players, despite the fact that there is widespread support for an extension.
“If Opec wants to be alive, we should take decisions inside Opec and not receive decisions from outside Opec,” warned Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh upon arrival in Vienna.
“We are not here to stamp some decision made outside Opec,” added the minister, who nevertheless supports the extension.
He added: “Opec is not an organisation to receive a proposal cooked outside the Opec and to approve it; it is not the mission of Opec.”
Iran, with production severely hit by US sanctions, is however exempted from the December cuts agreement along with crisis-stricken pair Venezuela and Libya.
Opec not dying
Nigeria’s delegation chief meanwhile played down talk that Riyadh and Moscow were “ganging together” in a deal that could potentially herald the death of Opec.
“I wouldn’t agree that Opec is dying,” said Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, Permanent Secretary at Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources, when quizzed by delegates.
“If 24 countries are committed to working together, if those countries are still committed to this cooperation, I don’t see how death is coming.”
United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei also voiced his support for an extension — and stressed that any nation could still veto the Osaka agreement.
“Each country’s voice counts and each country can veto a decision,” Mazrouei stated.
Opec and its oil-producer allies had decided in December to trim daily crude output by 1.2 million barrels, but this ran through to the end of June.
The reduction contributed to oil prices soaring by almost one-third in the first quarter of 2019, boosting revenues for Opec and non-Opec members alike.
The cartel meanwhile remains on red alert over escalating US-Iran tensions that have fuelled recent strong oil-price gains — but it and other producers are unlikely to end output cutbacks just yet.
Saudi Arabia’s influential energy minister Khalid al-Falih, arriving in Vienna early yesterday, declared that he wanted the cutbacks which began in January to be extended by nine more months to March 2020.
Opec’s meeting comes against a background of ample global crude supplies, according to both the cartel and International Energy Agency.
Saudi Arabia argues that oil supplies are sufficient, pointing to rising stockpiles despite significant output reduction in sanctions-hit Iran and Venezuela.
Worries over the global crude demand backdrop persist, particularly from the US-China trade war despite a truce agreed at the G20.
Added to the picture, the cartel has also lost market share to the United States, whose booming shale output has transformed it into the world’s biggest oil producer as well as a net exporter.
Russia, the second biggest oil producer followed by number three Saudi Arabia, decided three years ago to hook up with Opec to counter slumping oil prices. — AFP
