OPEC’s secretary general, Mohammed Barkindo said that the oil market was on course to re-balance during his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Egypt Petroleum Show (EGYPS) in Cairo.
OPEC’s secretary general, Mohammed Barkindo said that the oil market was on course to re-balance during his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Egypt Petroleum Show (EGYPS) in Cairo.
The OPEC secretary general was one of many top industry players talking during the first day of Egyps’s strategic conference.
He said that Egypt is becoming a key regional energy hub, especially in terms of natural gas.
“The big gas finds at Zohr and Northern Alexandria will help position Egypt as a global player in the gas sector.”
He stated that the market is responding to the actions taken by OPEC and non-OPEC countries to help balance the oil sector.
“We are on course to balance market. The re-balancing has been driven by the cooperative effort of all participating countries,” said Barkindo.
He added: “The report card for 2017 had surpassed our expectations. Conformity by all participating countries was over 107 per cent on average last year. This January it promises to break another record. It shows a determined joint effort to balance the market. What we are achieving now is going beyond what was first envisioned.”
Barkindo stressed that the historic declaration of cooperation between OPEC and on-OPEC countries was working and they were already looking at ways they can can institutionalise beyond just re-balancing.
“So we can ensure we minimise uncertainty and instability.”
The OPEC boss went on to say that market fundamentals have not been this strong in a long time
“Oil demand is growing. Global oil demand surpassed the 100 million bpd threshold much earlier than we expected. We predict oil demand to grown by 1.6 million bpd in 2018. What we are seeing is an increased energy demand across all sectors.”
The message from Barkindo was clear. Global economic growth is improving and OPEC predicts it will grow by 2.8 per cent.
He ended his keynote by saying: “The world will need more energy in the future that will require ugh investments. Looking ahead the future of our industry will be built on greater cooperation.”
Source: Pipeline ME
