Source: Energy Min sees oil market surplus removed in June–July

MOSCOW, May 25 (PRIME) -- The Russian Energy Ministry believes that the oil market balance will be attained in June or July, a source who participated in a meeting with Minister Alexander Novak told PRIME on Monday.

"There is still market surplus, supply exceeds demand by 7–12 barrels per day but we hope that we will reach a zero balance in June, taking into account continuing growth of demand and the market will reach a balance during this period," the source said.

Demand is to recover, as compared with the minimums of April in May. "Many countries are proactively removing restrictive measures, and this results in higher demand… Whereas demand fell by about 25–27% in April, it is now about minus 20% as compared with the last year," he said.

According to the source, Russia has already reached the target of oil output reduction of 2 million barrels per day. The non-OPEC deal participants have cut output by 3.5–4.0 million barrels per day and oil supply has fallen by 14–15 million barrels per day.

The source separately said that according to the ministry, there is competition between liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers on the global market due to low prices.  

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