Saudi Arabia to curb oil exports in a move to rebalance market

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, Khalid Al-Falih on Wednesday said that crude producers need to stick to production cuts throughout 2018 in order to rebalance the oil market.

The oil Minister announced this during a meeting in Riyadh with his Russian counterpart. The two were discussing closer cooperation in the energy sector.

“If we have to err by overbalancing the market a little bit so be it, rather than quitting too early and finding out that we were dealing with less reliable information. So that’s my inclination, to stay the course and make sure that the inventories are really where the industry needs them,” Falih said.

Saudi said it would restrain its oil exports in March despite lower domestic need for crude as OPEC’s leader is pushing to eliminate fully the global oil glut and combat worries about a new cycle of oil price weakness.

“I think we are going to be sticking to our policy throughout 2018, and that will be necessary to balance markets and to get consumers and producers and investors and all of the stakeholders in the oil market to feel that we have achieved our objectives,” the minister added.

The kingdom will keep its crude exports below 7 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, despite a maintenance shutdown of the 400,000 bpd SAMREF refinery, the Saudi energy ministry said, confirming a plan given earlier by industry sources.

#SaudiArabia, #Russia focus on rebalancing oil marketshttps://t.co/P4PlPuFaS7 pic.twitter.com/wb5j66Eo0t

— Arab News (@Arab_News) February 15, 2018

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and outside producers including Russia are reducing output to get rid of a supply glut. The pact began a year ago and has been extended until the end of 2018.