(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
DOHA: A delegation from Qatar, headed by Minister of Energy and Industry and current President of the Opec (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada arrived in Vienna yesterday to take part in the 169th Opec Conference Meeting that will be held today.
The agenda of the high profile conference is expected to include the situation of the global oil market, expected developments in production levels, supply and demand, investments in the oil sector and dialogue with non-Opec producers, said the Ministry of Energy and Industry in a statement yesterday.
Opec is meeting at a time when the oil market is showing a positive trend towards rebalancing, with Brent prices last week touching $50 for the first time in many months, compared to around $27 in January, an increase of almost 85 percent. This was largely due to a rise in demand and the slowing down or outage of many production stations around the world, let alone the retreat in investments in the sector.
Opec ministers gathering in Vienna for the group’s biannual meeting said the oil market is moving in the right direction as a supply glut dissipates. “From the beginning of the year until now, the market has been correcting itself upward,” Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy, UAE told reporters in Vienna. “The market will fix itself to a price that is fair to the consumers and to the producers,” he added.
Some of the world’s biggest oil traders said accelerating demand is also helping to rebalance the market. Opec currently produces around 32.5 million barrels per day. Organisations from Goldman Sachs Group to the International Energy Agency (IEA) say the crude glut is finally dwindling. The IEA expects oil demand to increase this year by 1.2 million barrels a day.
Oil prices fell early yesterday as production from the major Middle East exporters was expected to remain high or even increase just as concerns over the state of China’s economy weighed on its fuel demand outlook.
International benchmark Brent crude oil futures were trading at $49.59 per barrel, down 30 cents, or 0.6 percent, from their last settlement. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 23 cents, or 0.47 percent, at $48.87 a barrel.
The Peninsula