Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 9
By Sara Israfilbayova - Trend:
OPEC's prospects for 2019 suggest higher supply growth than global requirements, taking into account the prevailing uncertainties, Mohammad Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General, told Trend.
"Moreover, global economic growth prospects for 2019 are slightly lower than for 2018, which combined with the perceived uncertainties, could potentially have some implications for global oil demand this year," he said.
Barkindo noted that the cooperative efforts of the 25 producers in OPEC’s Declaration of Cooperation have helped to accelerate the return of balance to the global oil market, restore much needed stability and confidence to the industry, and it has had a positive effect on the global economy and trade worldwide.
"The Declaration has had a transformational impact on the global oil industry. However, we do not stop at what has been accomplished so far. Our full focus remains on building what has been achieved by sustaining a healthy and stable global oil market, in the interests of both producers and consumers," said the OPEC secretary general.
Further, he stressed that the next critical phase in the cooperation is to sustain the accomplishments in terms of market re-balancing, a gradual recovery in investments and return of confidence to the industry.
"Going forward, this may be through voluntary production adjustments, and also through a broader and institutionalized framework of cooperation based on the Declaration’s core principles of equity, fairness and transparency," he underlined.
The Declaration of Cooperation constitutes an unprecedented milestone in the history of the OPEC. For the first time ever, the Member Countries of OPEC coordinated with 11 non-OPEC oil producing countries in a concerted effort to accelerate the stabilization of the global oil market through voluntary production adjustments, which amounted to approximately 1.8 million barrels per day.
The Declaration was an outcome of the 1st OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting held on 10 December 2016 and was effective for an initial period of six months.
The 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting was held in Vienna, Austria, on December 7, 2018.
The meeting participants decided to adjust the overall production by 1.2 million barrels per day, effective as of January 2019 for an initial period of six months. The contributions from OPEC and the voluntary contributions from non-OPEC participating countries of the ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ will correspond to 0.8 million barrels per day (2.5 percent), and 0.4 million barrels per day (two percent), respectively.
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