Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.14
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Oil prices could stabilize or even increase, depending on the strategic decision-making issues presented by the new US administration under Donald Trump, Cyril Widdershoven, Middle East geopolitical specialist and energy analyst, partner at Dutch risk consultancy VEROCY and SVP MEA-Risk, told Trend Nov.14.
“Looking at the victory of Trump in major oil and gas producing states in the US, his support for coal and hydrocarbons, could in general mean that there could be more emphasis on American oil and gas production,” he said.
Widdershoven noted that this could be resulting in additional pressure on OPEC and others to cope with increased volumes on the market.
In September, OPEC producers agreed during the informal meeting in Algiers to cut down the oil output to 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from current production of 33.24 million bpd.
How much each country will produce is to be decided at the next formal meeting of OPEC in November.
The expert believes that Trump could be putting effort on stabilization of markets and regions, resulting in openings for overall cooperation.
“The energy companies will have, behind closed doors, smiled when Trump victory was presented. He will give them additional time to put in place hard needed changes, which are not going to be forced by political ideas but commercial results,” he added.
The US held presidential election November 8. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump won the election.
Given Trump’s pledge to open all federal land and waters for fossil fuel exploration, there are prospects of increased US oil output.
Trump’s energy policy includes the following goals: declare the country’s energy dominance a strategic economic and foreign policy goal; become, and stay, totally independent of any need to import energy; encourage the use of natural gas and other US energy resources that will both reduce emissions and the price of energy and increase its economic output.
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