Kuwait Oil Market Stabilizing

Kuwait’s oil minister said on Wednesday that the global oil market was approaching production stability after the recent OPEC and non-OPEC agreement to boost output.

“It is clear today based on the current level of production that we are approaching a very stable stage ... whether for the consumers or the producers,” Bakhit al-Rashidi was also quoted as saying by Reuters.

Kuwait has raised its oil output under June’s agreement among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and is pumping 2.8 million barrels per day, Rashidi said, adding that the country’s production capacity is 3.1 million bpd.

An upcoming joint OPEC and non-OPEC committee meeting in Algeria, set for Sept. 22-23, will review producers’ oil supply levels after OPEC and others led by Russia agreed in June to raise output to cool the market, the minister said.

OPEC and non-OPEC said they would raise supply by returning to 100% compliance with previously agreed output cuts, after months of underproduction. That would mean a roughly 1 million bpd increase in output.

Last month, Brent crude prices fell more than 6% and US crude slumped about 7%, the biggest monthly declines for both benchmarks since July 2016.

Rashidi said he hoped oil production from the Neutral Zone, which Kuwait shares with Saudi Arabia, would resume “very soon”.