H E Rumhi says OPEC+ agreement can sustain oil price above $60
Dubai, UAE - Italy’s top oil producer and Oman’s energy minister predict the latest oil rebound will stick. Prices are up more than 20 per cent since hitting an almost two-year low in December, enough to alter OPEC+ rhetoric from reassuring investors that it will cut output to taking credit for the rebound, and in the case of Oman, forecasting where oil will trade for the year.
H E Dr Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhi, Oman's Minister of Oil and Gas told Bloomberg TV that the agreement between OPEC and its partners including Russia and Oman can sustain prices at US$60 a barrel. He sees crude trading between that bottom and US$70 a barrel this year.
Claudio Descalzi, chief executive officer of Italy’s Eni SpA, also told Bloomberg TV the range will be between US$60 and US$62 a barrel.
A few weeks ago, as global benchmark Brent crude briefly dipped below US$50 a barrel, OPEC ministers were taking turns to remind investors that they would trim supply. That message, along with brightening prospects for US-China trade talks seem to have worked, pushing the gauge above US$60 a barrel and ending talks about an emergency OPEC meeting.
“I don’t think we need that,” UAE's Energy Minister Suhail al Mazrouei told reporters in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. “We are seeing that in December we started the correction. We are expecting we will be achieving the balance in the first quarter.”
OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, agreed to cut oil output this year to support prices. The group and its allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to start cutting 1.2mn barrels of daily production this month to stem a surplus and stabilize the market.