OPEC: Members to restore market stability during 2019

OPEC’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee members have pledged to restore market stability during a meeting in Azerbaijan.

OPEC said on Monday that the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) convened in Baku, Azerbaijan, for its thirteenth meeting on March 18.

The Committee reviewed the monthly report prepared by its Joint Technical Committee (JTC) and recent developments in the global oil market as well as prospects for the remainder of 2019.

According to OPEC, the Declaration of Cooperation supported oil market stability since December 2016 and all participating countries will ensure that such stability continues on a sustainable basis, as overall conformity reached almost 90% in February 2019, which is up from 83% in January.

The JMMC recognized the current, critical uncertainties surrounding the global oil market throughout 2019, and stated that participating countries share the responsibility to restore market stability and prevent the recurrence of any market imbalance.

All participating countries present at the meeting assured the Committee that they would exceed their voluntary production adjustments over the coming months.

To this end, JMMC urged all participating countries to achieve full and timely conformity with their voluntary production adjustments under the decisions of the 175th Meeting of the OPEC Conference and the 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting held in December 2018.

The JMMC also endorsed the adjustments of the baselines of three countries, Brunei Darussalam, Ecuador, and Malaysia. The Committee also welcomed Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, and the UAE as new members.

Since market fundamentals are unlikely to change in the next two months, the JMMC will forego the full Ministerial Meeting in April and instead scheduled a JMMC meeting in May ahead of the OPEC Conference meeting on June 25.

At the next JMMC meeting, a decision will be taken on the production target for the second half of 2019.

The JTC will continue its monthly meetings, and the next meeting of the JMMC is scheduled to take place in May 2019, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.