In this interview given to Nour Amache and Alaa Joudi from Asharq Business Bloomberg, Dr Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy, comments on the outcome of the OPEC+ meeting that took place on 4 June 2023.
Key takeaways:
- Saudi Arabia’s announcement of a voluntary 1 million barrels per day (Mb/d) cut for the month of July didn’t cause a major disruption in oil markets. That was partly because a cut was expected after OPEC+ meeting and partly because the size of the cut was not dramatic.
- OPEC+ is not the sole player in the oil markets; if it was, oil would have been trading at much higher levels than what we are currently seeing.
- Oil demand is still the least understood variable and is driven by a myriad of factors including the global economic outlook, the monetary policies adopted in key economies, and the reaction to prices.
- African member countries of OPEC, such as Nigeria and Angola, have been struggling in raising their oil production levels due to the lack of investment in their domestic oil sector.
- One of the interesting outcomes of the meeting is the possibility of revising Russian baseline production downward. Since the formation of OPEC+, Russia has not always delivered on its promises.
Watch the interview (in Arabic)
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