Leading oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia plan to draw up a new long-term agreement by the end of 2018, according to UAE Minister of Energy Suhail Al Mazrouei and cited by The National.
It is hoped the 24 nations currently scaling back production in a bid to support oil prices will sign a fresh deal prior to the end of the year.
Al Mazrouei also told the newspaper the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was urging members to create oil capacity buffers to counteract any dramatic upswings in price due to the weak US dollar.
Despite predictions of US shale supply potentially flooding the market this year, with the International Energy Agency suggesting the US could become the world’s leading producer before the end of 2018, surpassing 11mn barrels per day, Al Mazrouei believes the crude market will “rebalance” sooner than expected.
Al Mazrouei, who became President of the Conference of OPEC earlier this year, remarked that he was more concerned about an undersupply to the market rather than a glut of oil filling inventories.
