The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and
allies led by Russia, commonly known as OPEC Plus, will hold an online joint
ministerial monitoring committee meeting (JMMC) on August o1, 2024 to review
the market.
Reuters says the meeting would serve as a "pulse
check" for the health of the market.
Oil has risen in 2024 and was trading around US$85 a barrel
on Thursday, finding support from Middle East conflict and falling inventories.
Concern about higher for longer interest rates and demand has limited gains
this year.
Reuters says, neither the Saudi government communications
office returned a request for comment nor OPEC's headquarters in Vienna responded
to a request for comment.
OPEC Plus has cut output by a total of 5.86 million barrels
per day (bpd), or about 5.7% of global demand, in a series of steps agreed
since late 2022.
At its last meeting in June, OPEC Plus agreed to
extend cuts of 3.66 million bpd by a year until the end of 2025 and to prolong
the most recent layer of cuts, a 2.2 million bpd cut by eight members for three
months until the end of September 2024.
OPEC Plus is anticipated to gradually phase out the cuts of
2.2 million bpd over the course of a year from October 2024 to September 2025.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, asked this
week if the market was strong enough to take the extra volume from October, did
not rule out tweaks to the agreement if needed.
"Now we have such an option (of output increase), as we
said earlier, we will always evaluate the current situation," Novak said.
In June, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman
had said OPEC Plus could pause or reverse the production hikes if it decided
the market is not strong enough.
The JMMC usually meets every two months and can make
recommendations to change policy which could then be discussed and ratified in a
full OPEC Plus ministerial meeting of all members.
