OPEC will maintain oil prices despite a predicted surge in supply, the OPEC secretary general has said.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait have increased their production to cover the shortfall left by disrupted production in Iraq and Libya. Sanctions against Iran have also hit supply levels.
With Libya slowly taking back its occupied ports and the easing of sanctions against Iran, OPEC oil production could rise by as much as 2 million barrels per day. This could potentially create a surplus and force oil prices down.
“When they come, we will accommodate them, and OPEC will be as before. We’ve faced a lot of difficulties in the past, and we were able to overcome them, and this we will overcome,” Abdullah al-Badri, secretary general of OPEC, told Reuters.
OPEC is responsible for producing more than a third of the world’s oil and has set a collective target for its 12 members to pump 30 million bpd. However, it has not specified each country’s individual share. That could make it harder for the group to enforce cutbacks.
But Badri, who has frequently indicated that a set of individual output limits exists within the 30 million bpd target, said members knew what their shares of overall production should be.
“When we agreed this 30 million bpd deal, everybody knows his share. So when Libya and Iran will come back, everybody will know his share,” he said.
Â
