Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, are ready to reach a “forceful” agreement, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said.
This is coming on the heels of a meeting with OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo, who described the situation as the most severe oil market crisis in 50 years.
Russia has also expressed willingness to support an OPEC decision to freeze output, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.
However, rising oil production and changing fundamentals “make a credible OPEC cut all the more difficult to achieve,” Jason Gammel, analyst at U.S. investment bank Jefferies, said.
“The physical market has shifted back to oversupply because of surging OPEC output, with the most material increases driven by improving security conditions in Libya and (tenuously) Nigeria,” he said.
“The exports figures suggest that they will not give up a critical card that they are going to use in the OPEC negotiations to freeze or reduce OPEC production before they reach such an agreement at the November meeting,” said Sadad al-Husseini, an energy consultant and former Saudi Aramco senior executive.
Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports rose to 7.812 million barrels per day in September as the world’s top oil exporter increased shipments by 507,000 bpd versus August, official data showed on Thursday, Reuters reports.
