Goa, India — Current actions by OPEC+ to support the oil market are sufficient for now, UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said on Friday, and the group is “only a phone call away” if any further steps are needed.
OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, pumps around 40% of the world’s crude. The group has been limiting supply since late 2022 to bolster the market.
“What we are doing is sufficient as we say today,” the UAE minister told Reuters in Goa, India, where he is attending G20 energy ministerial meetings.
“But we are constantly meeting and if there is a requirement to do anything else then during those meetings, we will pick it up. We are always a phone call away from each other.”
At its last policy meeting in June, OPEC+ agreed on a broad deal to limit supply into 2024 and Saudi Arabia pledged a voluntary production cut for July that it has since extended to include August.
Oil prices have found some support from evidence of tightening supplies and economic stimulus in slow-recovering China, with Brent crude trading above $80 a barrel on Friday, up from near $71 in late June.
The next OPEC+ policy meeting is not until November, although a panel of key ministers, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, holds an online meeting on Aug. 4 to review the market.
The UAE minister said he was not worried about oil demand and described limited investment as the “biggest challenge.”
“We know how expensive it is to invest, and no-one other than (a) few countries are investing and increasing their capacity,” he said.
The UAE is among the few OPEC members with sizeable unused oil production capacity. At the OPEC+ meeting in June it received a higher production target for 2024 while a number of others had theirs reduced.
A mechanism for monitoring Russian output will be further developed, the minister added, with OPEC’s headquarters.
*Nidhi Verma, Alex Lawler; editing: Jason Neely, Louise Heavens, Conor Humphries & Paul Simao – Reuters
