Kuwait stated on the 24th of May that OPEC and non-member oil producers could deepen output cuts or extend them for a year as they seek to clear a global stocks overhang and prop up the price of crude, reported Channel News Asia.
However, hopes quickly faded after a joint OPEC and non-OPEC committee recommended keeping the curbs unchanged for nine months.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is to discuss in Vienna whether to prolong an accord reached in December 2016, in which the cartel and 11 non-members agreed to cut oil output by about 1.8mb/d in the first half of 2017, informed Reuters.
The market sees an extension by nine months, instead of the initially suggested six months, as the base-case scenario. OPEC’s main producer, Saudi Arabia, has said it favors such a move to speed up market rebalancing and prevent oil prices from sliding back below $50 per barrel.
