During the 19th ministerial meeting of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries in Moscow, Russia, the Minister for Oil, Eulogio Del Pino, confirmed the importance of including more nations in the cut-off agreement signed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 11 external producers (Opec +), which establishes a reduction of almost 1.8 million barrels per day.
“We are currently 24 countries and we have approximately 50% of the market. It would be a very positive message if we manage to include 12 more countries in the agreement”, he said, quoted by the oil office in a press release. He said that the signatory nations have spoken with the ministers of Egypt and Equatorial Guinea, who in turn “promote the potential participation of nations like Uganda, Chad, among others.”
He said that this instrument, which registers a 116% compliance, has helped to reduce the excess of crude oil that dominates the energy market, a factor that has affected the recovery of the prices of the oil barrel.
“There was an excess of inventories of 300 million barrels of crude oil that go to the speculative market and with the work of Opep + has been reduced to 150 million”, Del Pino said, while ratifying the will of the producers to fight for a fair price and to rebalance the market. The cut-off agreement, which in principle expired in June this year, was extended by the 24 signatory countries until March 2018.
