London — OPEC and its allies on Thursday vowed to review the monitoring mechanisms of its output agreement at the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting in Algiers on September 23 but said it sees the current oil market as largely balanced.
The JMMC, which is responsible for closely monitoring the market and recommending appropriate response measures, said in a statement that in Algiers "it will review the plan for monitoring overall market fundamentals and conformity levels for the remainder of 2018, as well as the framework of cooperation to be established in 2019 and beyond.
The JMMC said it was satisfied that recent market fundamentals showed a "good balance between supply and demand considering seasonal factors."Conformity levels of the participating countries was 109% in July compared to 121% in June, but still higher than what the alliance had agreed to at its meeting in late June, the statement said.
The six-country committee, which is chaired by Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih and includes ministers from Russia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Algeria and Oman, will be present at the Algiers meeting along with Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh.
OPEC and its partners agreed in late June to raise output by 1 million b/d. Given some countries are unable to pump more, a split has emerged on how to proceed.
OPEC's largest oil producer Saudi Arabia argues that the agreement should use a collective production ceiling, with the JMMC responsible for reallocating production quotas.
Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh maintains that the OPEC/non-OPEC production deal does not allow countries to produce more than their individual quotas.
This meeting is scheduled just six weeks before US sanctions that could shut in 1 million b/d or more of Iran's crude sales are scheduled to take effect in November.
