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By Trend

OPEC’s ultimate goal is beyond the oil market rebalancing, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

The longer term focus is on ensuring sustainable stability, which benefits producers, consumers, the industry, and the world economy at large, he said.

"We believe the rebalancing process is well underway. Alongside the positive conformity numbers from the ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ and the ongoing destocking process, we also see optimism going forward for global oil demand growth. It is estimated to increase by close to 2 million barrels a day from the first to the second half of this year," said OPEC secretary general.

Barkindo pointed out that OPEC forecasts healthy demand growth in 2018 as well.

"Undoubtedly, this boost in demand will contribute to normalization in commercial oil inventories. It is also important to note that we have recently seen a slight deceleration in non-OPEC supply growth, particularly in some tight oil basins as evidenced by falling rig counts," he said.

In December 2016 in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC countries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to curtail oil output jointly by 558,000 barrels per day. The agreement was signed for the first half of 2017.

On May 25, OPEC member countries and non-OPEC parties, Azerbaijan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, Republic of Sudan, and the Republic of South Sudan agreed to extend the production adjustments for a further period of nine months, with effect from July 1, 2017.

The reductions will be on the same terms as those agreed in November.

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