Vienna, Austria — OPEC Secretary General, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, held a bilateral meeting with Sonya Savage, Minister of Energy for Alberta, Canada, via videoconference to discuss oil market developments and the historic decisions reached at the 11th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting held on 6 June 2020.
The Secretary General underscored the importance of dialogue with all the industry’s stakeholders, and thanked the Minister for her ongoing cooperation and constructive input into the energy conversation.
“The agility and ability to make appropriate decisions comes only through the information we gain from valuable dialogues such as this one,” Barkindo said.
Alberta’s Energy Minister, Sonya Savage, extended her appreciation of the “extraordinary efforts” made by OPEC+ to bring about the decisions in April and June to scale back production by an unprecedented amount in response to COVID-19 demand destruction.
“We weren’t sure we would have an energy industry left three months ago. Due to the market responding to price signals and the OPEC decisions, we now see the market coming back into balance,” Minister Savage said.
Savage reiterated that a quarter of Alberta’s oil production has been shut down, which is more than 1 million barrels a day.
“These dialogues are very important to us, to see what is happening with other producers and discuss issues. We are glad to join in more dialogues now or at any time.”
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Savage said she would be honoured to accept Mr. Barkindo’s invitation to attend and participate in the OPEC Seminar, to be held in Vienna in June 2021.
She disclosed that Alberta is doing a lot of maintenance turnaround in light of the dire market situation and is “in no big rush” to bring barrels of oil back on the market.
Savage saw a possibility to involve international oil producers in a discussion about oil’s role in the energy transition.
“All sources of energy will be required in the energy transition, including oil,” she said, a sentiment echoed by OPEC Secretary General, Mohammed Barkindo.
There is energy poverty in this world and they will feel the impact of the pandemic and economic devastation more severely, said Savage. “They will need a reliable, affordable source of energy to recover.”
