(Bloomberg) -- The global oil market will remain balanced even when some members of the OPEC+ alliance gradually start to increase production, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said.
While the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have agreed to roll back some of their output curbs from later this year, the alliance “will assess the current situation,” Novak said in Russia’s southern city of Grozny, according to media reports.
“The market will always be balanced thanks to our actions,” he said in response to a question on whether the market can cope with higher crude supplies.
The comments come before an OPEC+ Join Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting in early August that will discuss the alliance’s production policy. From October, the group is due to start restoring about 2.17 million barrels a day of voluntary output cuts over a period of 12 months.
Concerns over abundant oil supplies pushed oil prices below $77 a barrel, the lowest since early February, in the immediate aftermath of OPEC+ announcing its plans in early June. Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in OPEC and its de facto leader, later emphasized that the group could decide against going ahead with the increases and would continue to monitor market conditions. Crude prices recovered, with global benchmark Brent now trading near $85 a barrel.
While the International Energy Agency last week said that demand increases will decelerate as China’s economy cools, OPEC continues to expect rapid growth similar to the recovery seen after the Covid pandemic.
READ: Oil Watchers Unusually Divided Over How Fast Demand Is Growing
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