APS : Sunday, 04 October 2020
ALGIERS – The Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-OPEC partners must “absolutely” continue their cooperation in order to maintain the oil market stability, which should experience slower-than-expected recovery
of prices compared to their 2019 level, said Minister of Energy Abdelmadjid Attar.
“The OPEC+ agreement implemented on May 1st 2020 and the full compliance by the largest producers, namely Saudi Arabia and Russia, allowed the increase of prices to $40 the barrel. This Union is still necessary and must absolutely continue to prevent a period of absence of short term visibility,” said Attar in an interview to the French-speaking daily “Liberté”, issued on Sunday.
According to him, without the OPEC-nonOPEC alliance, “we would have an extremely instable market and prices below the current level.”
The continuation of this Alliance is particularly important amid the uncertainties surrounding the health crisis and the recovery of demand, which characterize the market today.
“Currently, it is true that the whole world only follows a possible end of the pandemic, then a recovery in global demand. But this is not enough in my opinion, as further parameters which result from the pace and the mode of this recovery will certainly cause slow increase of prices to the level experienced in 2019 and probably never reach that of 2013,” he explained.
