{"id":190839,"date":"2021-06-02T17:22:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T15:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/opening-speech-by-opec-secretary-general-at-the-30th-meeting-of-the-joint-ministerial-monitoring-committee-jmmc?lang=en"},"modified":"2021-06-02T17:22:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T15:22:49","slug":"opening-speech-by-opec-secretary-general-at-the-30th-meeting-of-the-joint-ministerial-monitoring-committee-jmmc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/opening-speech-by-opec-secretary-general-at-the-30th-meeting-of-the-joint-ministerial-monitoring-committee-jmmc\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening speech by OPEC Secretary General at the 30th Meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"OPEC\"<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Excellencies,<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Two months ago today, the 15th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting<\/strong> took the forward-looking step of gradually increasing production, in line with the brightening outlook for both the economy and oil demand. Today marks the start of the second month<\/strong> of the stepped-up production increases, and our compass continues to point in the direction of a durable recovery.<\/p>\n

Step-by-step progress is being made on providing life-saving vaccinations to the world.  Around 1.9 billion doses <\/strong>have now been administered globally, and millions more are being given every day.  We are encouraged by the international commitments<\/strong> to support developing countries so they can acquire sufficient vaccines, and thus improve the chances for a durable and inclusive recovery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Turning first to the global economy, our latest projections show GDP growth <\/strong>of 5.5% in 2021<\/strong>, up from 5.4%<\/strong> at our last meeting and driven by expectations for a robust second half of the year.<\/p>\n

China <\/strong>and the US <\/strong>continue to fuel the growth prospects for the year, with China’s economy<\/strong> on course to expand by 8.5%<\/strong> and the US <\/strong>by 6.2%<\/strong>.  Despite the tragic second wave of COVID-19 in India<\/strong>, India’s economy is still expected to grow by 9.7%<\/strong>. The Euro-zone<\/strong>, where there has been a gradual easing of strict lockdowns, should benefit from pent-up consumer demand and the beginning of the summer holiday season.  Growth in the Euro-zone this year is forecast at 4.2%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The projections for oil are largely unchanged from our last meeting, with demand expected to grow by 6 mb\/d<\/strong> to around 96.5 mb\/d<\/strong> on average for the year, an increase of 6.6%<\/strong>.  As with the economy, the market outlook for later this year looks especially promising.  In fact, we anticipate that demand will surpass 99 mb\/d<\/strong> in the fourth quarter<\/strong>, which would put us back in the range of pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n

Overall, demand in countries outside the OECD<\/strong> should rise by nearly 6.8%<\/strong>, or 3.3 mb\/d<\/strong>, this year, and by almost 6.4%<\/strong>, or 2.7 mb\/d<\/strong>, in the OECD<\/strong>.  This is a welcome turn of events from the sombre situation we experienced in 2020<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here, I would caution that this is no time for complacency.  As we know from experience over the past year, COVID-19 is a persistent and unpredictable foe, and vicious mutations remain a threat to both human health and the recovery.  Furthermore, many leading economies are pumped up by record levels of fiscal and monetary stimulus<\/strong>, debt levels have soared, and inflation <\/strong>is beginning to rear its ugly head in some countries.<\/p>\n

We are also monitoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action talks<\/strong> that are taking place here in Vienna<\/strong>.  IR Iran<\/strong> is a Founder and an extremely important and valued Member of OPEC.  We anticipate that the expected return of Iranian production <\/strong>and exports <\/strong>will occur in an orderly and transparent fashion<\/strong>, thereby maintaining the relative stability that we have worked hard to achieve since April of last year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Turning to the supply side, non-OPEC <\/strong>liquids production is now forecast to grow at a slightly slower pace than we expected last month, rising by around 700,000 b\/d in 2021 <\/strong>to an average of 63.6 mb\/d<\/strong>.  In the US, liquids production is expected to dip slightly, to around 17.6 mb\/d, despite the improving market conditions and demand prospects.  Both conventional and tight crude production are forecast to decline in the US, while NGLs and biofuel output are expected to rise. <\/strong> In contrast to the US<\/strong>, liquids production is expected to grow in Canada, Brazil, China and Norway<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We continue to keep a close watch on OECD commercial oil inventories<\/strong>. April data<\/strong> showed a drop of 6.9 mb<\/strong> from the previous month, to 2.96 billion<\/strong> barrels<\/strong>.  On the positive side, inventories <\/strong>have fallen by 250 mb from their peak of 3.2 billion barrels in the middle of 2020.  OECD<\/strong> commercial stocks <\/strong>fell to 66 days<\/strong> in April 2021<\/strong>, 12.3 days <\/strong>lower than the April 2020 <\/strong>levels, but still 3.9 days <\/strong>above the 2015-2019 average<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the US, total commercial stocks<\/strong> fell by more than 8% in April<\/strong>, to nearly 1.3 billion barrels<\/strong>, about 2% <\/strong>below the latest five-year average<\/strong>.  Yesterday was the Memorial Day holiday in the US, the traditional start of the summer driving season<\/strong>, and we are hopeful this will accelerate the drawdown.<\/p>\n

Our latest data also show that the backwardation structure<\/strong> of all three major benchmarks lessened slightly in April<\/strong>.  Hedge funds and other money managers slightly raised their long positions in crude following the sell-off seen in March<\/strong>, with gains concentrated mainly in Brent.<\/p>\n

Month-on-month, the actions of the Declaration of Cooperation<\/strong> continue to support the rebalancing process, and have helped reduce the global supply by more than 2.9 billion <\/strong>barrels since May 2020<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, there continues to be significant overproduction <\/strong>by some of the participating countries<\/strong>.  The overproduced volumes need to be accommodated to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.<\/p>\n

In this regard, the 15th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting <\/strong>agreed to extend the very generous compensation period for overproduced volumes <\/strong>until the end of September 2021<\/strong>. Our continued contributions to sustainable oil market stability depend upon all participants achieving 100% conformity <\/strong>and, where necessary, working dutifully to compensate for overproduction.<\/p>\n

The advice and guidance of this Committee<\/strong>, along with the support of the Joint Technical Committee<\/strong>, is vital to supporting the Declaration of Cooperation <\/strong>decision-making process.<\/p>\n

As we prepare for the 17th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting<\/strong>, allow me to draw inspiration from the renowned Russian writer Ivan Turgenev<\/strong>, who said – and I quote:<\/p>\n

“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

From the very beginning of the Declaration of Cooperation<\/strong>, we have never stood back and waited to act.  Rather, we have worked proactively and with determination<\/strong>, and our efforts to restore oil market balance and stability continue to bear fruit.  I look forward to the work before us today, and to our continued and valued cooperation going forward.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of OPEC.<\/i><\/p>\n

Media files<\/b>
\"OPEC\"<\/a>
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Source: Africa Newsroom – APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excellencies, Two months ago today, the 15th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting took the forward-looking step of gradually increasing production, in line with the brightening outlook for both the economy and oil demand. Today marks the start of the second month of the stepped-up production increases, and our compass continues to point in the direction of a durable recovery. Step-by-step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":190840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-190839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/opening-speech-by-opec-secretary-general-at-the-30th-meeting-of-the-joint-ministerial-monitoring-committee-jmmc.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}