UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei has said he is not concerned with the current crude oil price, according to Reuters.
Since the turn of the year, crude prices have been on a strong bullish run and have recently hit three year highs, touching $70 a barrel. “We are not panicking or see any need to do anything,” Al Mazrouei told a recent oil event in Abu Dhabi.
He added that there was still an oversupply of around 100 million barrels in the market and inventories needed to decrease further. In a bid to bolster prices, Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member countries, and other oil producers, commenced sustained oil output cutbacks in early 2017.
But oil prices this year have spiked to their highest level since May 2015 causing some Opec members to fear that US shale companies will now raise their output, blighting attempts to support prices and reduce inventories.
Al Mazrouei said Opec would continue studying oil supply growth in the US and stated the market needed US shale oil to help meet the global growth in demand.
