Saudi Minister Confident that OPEC+ Made Right Output Decision

Apr 8, 2021

(Bloomberg) Saudi Arabia remains confident that the OPEC+ agreement to increase output over the next three months was the right move, said its energy minister.“It’s still a good decision,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in an interview in Riyadh on Thursday. “I don’t see anything yet that disturbs us, me or my colleagues at OPEC+.”

OPEC+ Readies for Output Talks With Cautious Approach Vindicated — Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, gestures as he speaks during a panel session on day three of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020.

The minister spoke one week after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies agreed to add more than 2 million barrels a day of crude to the market from May to July, anticipating a recovery in fuel demand. Since then, Brent crude has remained above $60 a barrel despite setbacks to the world’s emergence from the Covid-19 pandemic, including a vaccine shortage in India.

OPEC+ acted “in an extremely careful way” when it made the decision to increase output, Prince Abdulaziz said. The group will continue to meet every month to assess the market, meaning it can quickly adjust its plans if things change.

“If things go south, we can always easily reverse,” the minister said. The deal includes a mechanism that would allow production to “increase, freeze or decrease” depending on what happens, he said.