Global oil market participants have had the first week of September circled on their calendars ever since Opec+ countries announced in June that they will begin easing 2.2mn b/d of voluntary cuts from October (MEES, 7 June). Amid ongoing concerns over the market’s readiness to absorb these volumes, any decision to pause the process would have to be made by that week.
Other opportunities to announce a pause, such as last month’s JMMC meeting, have been and gone with no real expectation of a re-evaluation. Opec+ leaders, such as Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, typically prefer to leave such decisions until late on as they seek to have access to as much information as possible. But as the clock ticks down there have been no indications that a change of strategy is on the cards. Opec sources this week say that as yet no such discussions have been held. (CONTINUED - 1050 WORDS)
