Saudi Arabia, the main member of the "OPEC +" group that includes the countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners, said Tuesday that oil producers must be prepared to amend their current agreement on reducing production in order to prevent prices from falling again.
"We must be ready to amend the terms of our agreement if necessary," Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a direct speech before the meeting of the group that includes OPEC and its allies, including Russia.
He added that "flexibility and pre-eminence must remain the guiding principles for our deliberations today and in the future."
The alliance is currently committed to major production cuts agreed in April in order to protect prices from a decline similar to what happened when global demand collapsed in the wake of the first wave of the emerging coronavirus pandemic.
According to the agreement currently in force, the current production cut of 7.7 million barrels per day is set to narrow to 5.8 million barrels from January 2021.
Despite the improvement in the market due to the encouraging news about a number of Covid-19 vaccines, many market observers expect that the January reduction will be postponed by three to six months.
The postponement will be agreed at the next group meeting on November 30 and December 1.
And the return of Libyan oil fields to production to one million barrels per day, according to the Libyan National Oil Corporation, further pressure on prices.
The chaotic country, like Venezuela and Iran, got exceptions from the production cut.
Prince Abdulaziz congratulated his counterparts in "OPEC +" for the commitment to achieve the goals of the cuts so far, and said, "We have achieved 99.5 percent" of the agreed goals, while reminding other countries that "we must maintain a high commitment."
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