OPEC meets to assess oil production

OPEC’s 13 nations are meeting in Vienna to hammer out their positions on a key conference this Sunday with their 10 allies, including Russia, to decide what the level of its oil production in the coming months.

Amid great uncertainty about the evolution of the world economy and energy demand, the meeting of the so-called OPEC+, an alliance created in 2016 under the leadership of Saudi Arabia and Russia, has raised high expectations in the crude oil markets.

Investors in the sector are waiting to find out if it will this group is responsible for 40% of the world’s crude oil production will turn off the taps for the third time since October or leave the current level of their pumping unchanged.

After maintaining a clear downtrend in recent weeks, “petroprecios” ended the week on the riseprompted by the passage of legislation in the United States to raise the debt ceiling and thereby prevent the country from entering into a suspension of payments.

He a barrel of Brent oil remained at $76.08 in London on Friday2.45% more than at the close of the previous session, while the price is Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) advanced 2.64% to $71.74In New York.

These prices, although they regained some of the lost position, they are still well below the levels above $100/barrel they were a year ago and they do not satisfy OPEC+, which has been unsuccessfully trying to reach the level above $80 for months.

For that, agreed to withdraw 2 million barrels per day (mbd) from the market as of November 1 and in early April he announced further voluntary (ie non-binding) reductions, totaling 1.66 mbd, which took effect on May 1.

If one hundred percent is fulfilled, these reductions represent about 4% of the world supply of crude oil and leave the total production quota of the 20 countries that have pledged to limit their production (all OPEC+ members except Venezuela, Iran and Libya) at 39.19 mbd.

On the other side, OPEC has denied, without explanation, accreditation to various international media to cover this weekend’s ministerial conferencesincluding Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, prompting protests from Austrian press associations.

Instead of that, journalists from other media, such as EFE, AFP, DPA or the Financial Times they received personal and “non-transferable” invitations, a way of acting that has not been seen at the top of organizations in the last quarter of a century.