OPEC develops framework to stabilize global oil market

  Following its meeting in September in Algiers, Algeria, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has begun to develop a framework to stabilise the global oil market.

The Algerian meeting was where OPEC members agreed to cut output on 28th September to halt continued crude oil supply glut and shore up price. As a result of the landmark agreement, the meeting was tagged Algiers Accord.

The first meeting of the high-level committee of the Algiers Accord was held Friday in Vienna, Austria where the OPEC Secretary General, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo called for cooperation among members of the Organisation to help achieve sustainable oil market stability.

He also mandated that the Committee develop a framework of high-level consultations between OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries.

Barkindo said: "Since the Algiers Accord, a 'road map for implementation' has already begun to take shape. This has emerged in the process of carrying out extensive consultations with other stakeholders on how best to honour and implement the Conference's decision - in the interest of all producers and consumers.

"Thus, OPEC has sought to use every occasion in recent weeks to advance the Accord. It has used additional platforms to confer with other producers. Similarly, OPEC has used other fora - like the G-24 Ministerial and the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington, as well as the World Energy Congress in Istanbul - for extensive exchanges of perspectives on the current challenges facing not only the oil and gas industry but the global economy in general.

"The market has been out of balance for too long, due primarily to supply driven forces. These have led to a severe correction in prices, impacting required and timely investments, which is now threatening future supply. OPEC and non-OPEC must now come together and take coordinated and timely action for the common good of all.

"While we have seen the rebalancing process already underway, the physical market remains in surplus. A large stock overhang continues to persist. And today's excess stocks of around 300 million barrels calls for our collective and urgent action.

 "The recent high-level OPEC-Russia Dialogue meeting was a good reflection of the broader consultations with other producers that we continue to undertake in response. Personally, I also just visited Baghdad, Iraq - the birthplace of our Organization and a key founder member - in order to solidify the consensus of the Algiers Accord."  

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