Bakheet Al-Rasheedi

KUWAIT: Kuwait's Oil Minister and Chairman of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) Bakheet Al-Rasheedi announced that OPEC and Non-OPEC countries' commitment to the output reduction level reached 122 percent for November, the highest percentage since January 2017. This statement came after the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) held its 11th meeting in Vienna yesterday. The JTC is a sub-committee of the JMMC. The JMMC and JTC are chaired by the State of Kuwait until the end of 2017, after which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will assume chairmanship of both committees in January 2018.

Rasheedi expressed his great satisfaction with the historic and unprecedented level of conformity achieved by the 24 participating countries, noting that this effort supports restoring the oil market balance and it is in favor of the oil industry at large.

"I received the JTC report today and i am pleased to announce that November conformity is the highest ever since the beginning of the implementation of the agreement in January; it has reached 122 percent. This is a strong signal to the oil market that OPEC and non-OPEC participating are committed to the success of this agreement and are willing to do everything necessary to restore the oil market balance," Rasheedi said.

Rasheedi explained that in the past couple of months several encouraging indicators have emerged; the overhang in OECD commercial stocks relative to the five-year average has dropped by 200 million barrels compared to the beginning of this year, and also floating storage globally has declined significantly with the changing price structure as it has become less attractive to store oil.

"We expect oil demand in 2018 to increase by 1.51 million barrels per day compared to this year," Rasheedi added. He also commended the JTC and JMMC on their role in monitoring and improving the process during this year, and praised the participating countries for their high commitment and urged them to continue with the same spirit next year. - KUNA