OPEC+ Shifts Joint Technical Committee Meeting to May 31

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) has reportedly postponed its Joint Technical Committee meeting initially due for May 25 to May 31.

However, the cartel’s ministerial meeting will still take place as scheduled on June 1.

The JTC usually reviews market fundamentals and monitors compliance with the group’s oil production cuts. It holds its meetings via videoconference to review these oil market conditions to the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC).

At the ministerial meeting in early April, the OPEC+ group decided to gradually return over one million barrels per day (bpd) to the market between May and July.

The OPEC+ collective oil production is set to rise by 350,000 barrels per day in both May and June and by more than 400,000 barrels per day in July.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia will also gradually ease its extra unilateral cut of one million barrels per day over the course of the next few months, beginning with monthly production increases of 250,000 barrels per day in both May and June. Overall, OPEC+ is expected to return to the market as much as 2.1 million barrels per day by July.

The decision from early April signalled the confidence of the leaders of the OPEC+ alliance that the market would be able to absorb that much supply as vaccination programs are accelerating and people start travelling more.

OPEC+ and analysts expect global oil demand to rebound strongly in the second half of 2021 and nearly reach pre-COVID crisis levels by the end of the fourth quarter this year.