UPDATE: OPEC+ monitoring committee to meet in Saudi Arabia in May

(Adds paragraphs 4–7)

BAKU, Mar 18 (PRIME) -- The next meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of the oil production cut deal between OPEC and non-OPEC states will take place in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah in May, OPEC said in a statement on Monday.

The committee also recommended cancelling a ministerial meeting to oversee the deal, previously scheduled for April.

Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates joined the committee, the statement also read.

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said that the deal may be unable to remove glut from the market until the end of June although the situation can change. If OPEC+ decides to raise production after the deal expires in June, some restrictions will still persist.

“We expect the world’s commercial crude reserves to fall by May, the question is whether they fall sufficiently to rebalance the market… If the reserves decrease considerably we will discuss in May whether OPEC should raise the output, and the decision will be made in June,” he said.

“But… I think we are unlikely to fully lift output restrictions in the second half of the year.”

Oman has decided to leave the OPEC+ committee, Al-Falih also said.

In November 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC states including Russia first agreed to reduce their oil output to rebalance the market. In December 2018, the participants of the deal decided to cut production by an additional 800,000 barrels per day for OPEC and 400,000 barrels per day for non-OPEC states, including 230,000 barrels per day for Russia, from the level of October 2018.

End