BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.5
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Despite the growing speculation that OPEC+ is set to deepen oil production cuts at this week’s meeting, a rollover of current quotas is more likely, Trend reports citing UK-based Capital Economics research and consulting company.
“This will continue to weigh on growth and budget revenues in the Gulf over the next year or so. This year’s output cuts have dragged on growth in oil sectors across the Gulf. This has probably intensified in Q4 and the drag will linger into 2020. An extension of the current quotas could cause the price of oil to fall,” said the company.
This is while Rystad Energy, the independent energy research and consulting firm headquartered in Norway with offices across the globe, sees three alternative OPEC+ decision scenarios:
Base case: Extension of current production cuts to June 2020. Global oil market will be oversupplied to the tune of 1.2 million bpd in 2020. Significant oil price correction, possibly down to the low $40s for a short period, is likely.
Deeper cuts: Additional cut of 0.75 million bpd on top of the 0.3 million bpd in the extension scenario would reduce the supply overhang and ensure stable prices.
No deal/market share war: A ramp-up to maximum production capacity in all countries could have devastating effects. With potential stock builds of 2.3 million bpd, oil prices could fall below $30/bbl – lower than during the previous lows of 2016. Such a scenario would be devastating for the forward curve structure as potential stock builds would be larger than what we have observed historically.
Rystad Energy finds that OPEC+ as a whole has cut oil production by 2.6 million bpd year-to-date, compared to October 2018 reference levels and the cut target of approximately 1.2 million bpd. The additional 1.4 million bpd of “cuts” are owed entirely to involuntary declines from Iran and Venezuela, both of which are exempt from the agreement. Saudi Arabia has led the group’s compliance by cutting 870,000 bpd in 2019, or 2.7 times its target cut of 322,000 bpd.
The challenge for OPEC+ is the strong supply growth elsewhere in the world. Rystad Energy forecasts a supply growth of 2.6 million bpd year-on-year in 2020, led by US shale, Norway and Brazil against weak global demand growth of only 1.0 million bpd year-on-year. Rystad Energy forecasts that non-OPEC non-US supply will grow 1.2 million bpd year-on-year in 2020, OPEC estimates this number at 0.6 million bpd year-on-year.
In late 2018, OPEC and a number of countries outside this organization (OPEC+ format) decided to modernize the terms of the agreement on the reduction of oil production, in force from the beginning of 2017. The countries agreed to reduce the total production by 1.2 million barrels per day from the level of October 2018.
On July 2, 2019, a decision was made in Vienna to extend the agreement on reducing oil production by OPEC member and non-member states until the end of the first quarter of 2020.
The 177th Meeting of the OPEC Conference is expected to be held December 5, 2019, followed by the 7th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting on December 6 in Vienna, Austria.
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