The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
OPEC and allied oil producers should extend their production cuts beyond March to help re-balance the market, the United Arab Emirates said, adding weight to a gathering consensus for longer reductions in output among participants in the global accord.
The UAE favours maintaining the cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the first quarter, Minister of Energy Suhail Al Mazrouei said. The fourth-largest member of OPEC staked out its position a day after OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said that caps on output are the “only viable option†to restore stability to the market. “Definitely there is a need for extension,†Mazrouei said.
Output cuts by OPEC and other producers such as Russia and Oman have started to pay off, with benchmark Brent crude trading close to a two-year high.
OPEC will meet in Vienna on November 30 to review the pact on cuts, which took effect in January, and poss-ibly extend it. Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq already signalled they would be open to extending the curbs.
Oman, a member of the producer committee monitoring the cuts, wants to prolong them beyond March and sees producers extending them until the end of 2018, Oil Minister Mohammed Al Rumhy told reporters in Abu Dhabi.