Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, speaking before a meeting in Muscat, has said the world’s oil producers need to work together beyond 2018 and hinted this might mean a new kind of deal or arrangement, according to Reuters.
Khalid Al Falih’s comments represented the first occasion the Middle East’s leading oil producer has floated the possibility of a new form of coordination among oil producers after 2018. The present agreement on supply cuts is due to end in December this year. Talking to reporters prior to a meeting of the joint ministerial committee which oversees the implementation of the cuts, Al Falih said, “We shouldn’t limit our efforts to 2018 — we need to be talking about a longer framework of cooperation,” Al-Falih said. “I am talking about extending the framework that we started, which is the declaration of cooperation, beyond 2018.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean sticking barrel by barrel to the same limits or cuts, or production targets country by country that we signed up to in 2016, but assuring stakeholders, investors, consumers and the global community that this is something that is here to stay. And we are going to work together.”
