Kuwait Says May Back Extension of OPEC-Led Cuts

Kuwait will back an extension of OPEC-led production cuts beyond June if it's clear supply and demand factors warrant it, Haitham al-Ghais, Kuwait Petroleum Corp's manager for market research and the country's OPEC governor, said Wednesday.
"There are many moving parts and elements in the equation that we need to closely monitor, both on the demand side and the supply side," Ghais said on the sidelines of the Middle East Petroleum & Gas Conference in Dubai, spglobal.com reported.
In terms of macroeconomic factors potentially impacting demand, Ghais mentioned the possibility of a hard Brexit along with uncertainty about the outcome of the China-US trade talks. 
On the supply side, escalating military tensions in Libya and uncertainty around US sanctions on OPEC members Iran and Venezuela cloud the outlook, he said.
"The situation in Venezuela is very tense and the situation in Libya is escalating so we do not know what is going to be the outcome there," Ghais said.
"And on the demand side, we don't know what the implications are on demand if the China-US trade war doesn't get resolved. These are things that I think will be more clear by the time of the May JMMC [Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee] meeting in Jeddah, and hopefully even clearer by the time we meet in June."
"For us as a group of producers, both OPEC and non-OPEC, we want to make decisions based on hard facts. We don't want to make any decisions based on speculation."