In this commentary to the Gulf Intelligence, Dr Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy, discusses the latest developments in global economy and oil industry.
On balance, there is no firm recovery evenly distributed around the world. On a bigger picture, oil markets have recovered significantly from levels seen last year and the new floor for Brent is probably around $60/bl, especially with the OPEC+ agreement still in place. However, the recent volatility and weakness in the market confirms the concerns of OPEC+ at their last meeting at being cautious about the market’s recovery. This remains the case. The EU particularly, the largest economic bloc in the world, doesn’t look good.
It’s inevitable that we would see the fruits of support from the massive fiscal stimulus packages and we are also getting better at dealing with Covid-19 with more positive indicators on the health front on hospitalizations and deaths in developed economies. However, developing countries are still looking dreadful with the number of infections spreading rapidly, amid the added challenge of rising debt levels. We are heading in the right direction, but the global economic outlook remains highly uncertain and very patchy.
Dr Nakhle is joined by Richard Redoglia, CEO of Matrix Global Holdings, and Laury Heytayan, MENA Director at Natural Resource Governance Institute. Sean Evers, Managing Partner, Gulf Intelligence, moderates the discussion.
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