Saudi Arabia Calls for More Work to Cut Oil Inventories

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Saturday that more work was needed to reduce global oil inventories.

“There is a general satisfaction with the strategy of 24 countries that signed a declaration of cooperation”, he said after a meeting attended by his Russian, Uzbek and Kazakh counterparts, CNBC reported. Russia and Saudi Arabia are leading a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to cut global oil production, with the aim of propping up oil prices.

“Everybody recognizes that the job is not done yet by any means; we still have significant amount of work to do to bring inventories down. Mission is not yet complete, more needs to be done,” he added.

Falih said members of the global pact he had spoken with have expressed the same views.

“This is the same sentiment I’ve heard yesterday from (Kazakh) President (Nursultan) Nazarbayev; this is the same sentiment I’ve heard from all the oil producing members of the Asia energy ministers’ round table,” he added. Officials from Malaysia, Ecuador, Nigeria and Libya have also given him similar feedback.

"All committed to working with other producers and supporting the agreement,” the Saudi oil minister added.

Last month, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman backed the extension of OPEC production cuts beyond March 2018. He said in an interview with Bloomberg News that "of course" he wanted to extend the cuts into 2018.

"We need to continue stabilizing the market," he said.

Saudi officials had until then signaled they favored prolonging the cuts, but stopped short of making a formal commitment, saying all options were still open. His comments, weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin also gave provisional backing to an extension, signal that Riyadh and Moscow are ready to prolong their collaboration to reduce oil supply and lift energy prices.