OPEC and UAE Energy Minister president Suhail al-Mazrouei criticized that it’s “unfair” to say OPEC for not doing its part and blame the group for oil price. This should be in response to Trump’s one-sided call for OPEC to increase production. Al-Mazrouei said the group always listen to a major consumer country as “we listen to the United States, we listen to China, we listen to India.”
But he added that “OPEC alone cannot be blamed for all the problems that are happening in the oil industry, but at the same time we were responsive in terms of the measures we took in our latest meeting in June.” And, “there are things outside of our hand, the geopolitics as well as how much production is coming from the shale oil and Canadian sands.”
OPEC agreed last month to increase production modestly and Al-Mazrouei said “we need to just give it time to enter the market”. He also emphasized that the group is seeking a balance between supply and demand, not targeting a specific price. Meanwhile, he didn’t anticipate any extraordinary meeting of OPEC before the next scheduled one in December.
