By Audrey Lotechukwu
TUE 06 JULY, 2021-theGBJournal- OPEC ministers on Monday abandoned talks on production levels with no clear cut date set for next meeting.
OPEC Secretary General, HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, announced the suspension of the meeting in a letter to Heads of Delegation of OPEC Member Countries and non-OPEC oil producing countries participating in the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC).
“Upon consultations with HRH Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman, Minister of Energy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and HE Alexander Valentinovich Novak, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Chairman and Co-chairman of the OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting (ONOMM), the reconvened 18th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting has been called off,” the Secretary General stated.
The Secretary General said ”the date of the next meeting will be decided in due course and we will inform you accordingly.”
Meanwhile, oil prices accelerated Monday on the news with Benchmark Brent crude hitting new high at $77.11 a barrel, a two and half high. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures, the U.S benchmark, rose 1.56% to $76.33 a barrel, the highest level since October 2018.
The output decision was first delayed last week Thursday following an unexpected last minute drama when members failed to reach an agreement on production policy for August and beyond.
The dispute was on the size of the proposed production increase which came lower than most analysts had expected, coming in at an average monthly addition of 400,000 bpd, whereas expectations had been for 500,000 bpd.
Twitter-@theGBJournal|Facebook-The Government and Business Journal|email: govandbusinessj@gmail.com
