OpeOluwani Akintayo
24 April 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, says participating countries in the reigning oil cut agreement between it and some other oil producing nations, led by Russia, have demonstrated unwavering dedication to achieving the rebalancing of the global oil market.
This came as the organisation reported the achievement of 149 percent conformity level on the 15 month old deal, by which OPEC and its allies cut crude oil production by 1.8 million barrels per day.
“Once again, participating countries have demonstrated unwavering dedication to achieving the rebalancing of the global oil market, as demonstrated by the high conformity level of 149%”, OPEC said in a statement, adding: “Their collective efforts continue to yield positive results, with market fundamentals being solid”.
The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, JMMC, announced the achievement of the 149 percent compliance level at its eighth meeting last week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
It announced that based on the report of the Joint Technical Committee, JTC, for the month of March 2018, following successive months of record-breaking performance, OPEC and participating non-OPEC countries, led by Russia, have achieved a conformity level of 149% with their voluntary production adjustments, the highest level so far.
The JMMC was established following OPEC’s 171st Conference Decision of November 30, 2016, and the subsequent Declaration of Cooperation at the joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries’ Ministerial Meeting on December 10, 2016, at which 11 (now 10) non-OPEC oil-producing countries, cooperated with the 13 (now 14) OPEC member countries in a concerted effort to accelerate the stabilisation of the global oil market by voluntarily cutting oil production by 1.8 million barrels per day.
The declaration, which came into effect on January 1, 2017 was for six months.
The second joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries’ Ministerial Meeting on May 25, 2017, decided to extend the voluntary production adjustments for another nine months commencing July 1, 2017.
At the third joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries’ Meeting, held on November 30, 2017, the Declaration of Cooperation was amended to cover the entire 2018.
