OPEC+ ministers meet as demand outlook dips
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its coalition members hosted in OPEC+ are scheduled to meet on March 2 to confirm additional output by 400,000 bpd in April. The meeting comes amidst outlook that global oil demand might dip in the year.
The Oracle Today reports that crude oil market projection by the world’s league of producers captured in the OPEC+ coalition remains unchanged even after the geopolitical tension sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and changing supply dynamics in Europe.
Reports from sources close to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-member producing countries stated that the coalition might not alter its production and market supply plans on account of the prevailing global tension.
Secondary sources quoted in market reports have it that the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of OPEC+ might have recommended no change in output as the ministers meet on Wednesday to agree on volumes to pump into the market in April.
The rigid supply position is expected to solidify oil prices above $100 per barrel as economic and trade sanctions hit Russia-a key member of the OPEC+ coalition- from all corners of the earth.
The Oracle Today gathered that OPEC+ revised down its forecast for the 2022 oil market surplus by about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.1 million bpd, according to a base scenario in a technical committee report seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The data forming part of the JTC report ministers also shows falling stocks in key consumer nations which, according to the figures stood at 62 million barrels below the 2015 to 2019 average by the end of the year.
In a previous forecast it had predicted the stocks would reach 20 million barrels above the same average by that point.
The group’s physical output has historically remained far below projected volumes, creating increasing gaps between planned output and accrual barrels. In January OPEC+ produced 972,000 bpd less than declared production targets, a further decline from 824,000 the group produced in December.
