Oil prices will begin to ‘adjust’ in 2016 as non-conventional oil supplies start to decline, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive officer said he believes.
“This year you see a decline, there is no additional unconventional oil coming to the market, actually there is a decline,” Amin Nasser on Monday said at the 9th International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) in Doha, Qatar.
“The supply and demand imbalance in the market will adjust and stabilise and the gap will be closing, and we will be seeing, hopefully, an adjustment in the prices going forward starting from 2016,” Nasser said.
With OPEC countries, led by Saudi Arabia, producing an estimated 32mn barrels per day (bpd), above the group’s agreed 30mn bpd target, and with Iran expected to resume substantial exports next year, hopes were that the group would take steps to lower supplies.
However, OPEC members failed to agree an oil production ceiling on Friday at a meeting that ended in acrimony, after Iran said it would not consider any production curbs until it restores output scaled back for years under Western sanctions.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, is currently trading at around $40 a barrel.
