Russian Energy Minister Points To Slowing Recovery Of Oil Demand

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2020) Oil demand recovery has slowed down, OPEC+ had hoped for a faster recovery pace, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said after the Monday energy ministers' meeting.

On Monday, OPEC+ energy ministers met to discuss compliance with the agreed quotas of oil production cuts.

"If you remember, it [demand] was falling 20-25 million barrels a day, then after the lifting of various lockdown measures introduced by governments with the aim of fighting COVID, the demand was quickly restored," Novak told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster on Monday, adding that "currently, this recovery has become slower, of course we had expected a faster pace of recovery."

The Russian energy minister said that the situation depends on what's happening with the world economy in light of various measures that countries are taking amid a second wave of the coronavirus infection.

A source in one of the OPEC+ delegations told Sputnik on Monday that Saudi Arabia had invited other members of the oil output freeze agreement to consider increasing production in early 2021, but there is no consensus on the issue because of uncertainty over the demand.

According to the source, some of the countries asked the OPEC+ monitoring committee to take into account risks that are posed by the coronavirus pandemic when discussing quotas.

The next meeting of the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) has been scheduled for November 17, while the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) will meet on November 16, OPEC said on Monday.

Novak told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster on Monday that the upcoming meeting would focus on the situation in the coming months. According to Novak, the JMMC has agreed to continue to implement the oil production cut agreement in full.