The Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Dr Mohammad Barkindo, applauded the role of world political leaders in aiding the recovery of the global oil market.

For the first time in many years, the world was hit with an unexpected drop in oil prices due to low demand and excess availability of the crude caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, the United States played a major role in restoring balance to the market. He noted that neither OPEC nor an individual oil-producing country intends to take the production of the US shale out of business.

He also applauded the role of other world leaders for the remarkable roles they played. He noted that the market was facing a demand contraction in projections of almost 30 million bpd in April and between 25 to 30 million bpd in the second quarter of 2020.

In April, the OPEC+ signed an agreement to historically cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day.

Excerpts from the Secretary-General’s words:

“We tried to cobble together this agreement despite the differences among us and we welcomed the participation of the biggest producers in the world.”

“In particular the United States that took it upon themselves to ensure that we were able to bridge the gaps between us, to restore communication between us, to finally take this decision including to the minutest details of the volumes.”

“We are grateful to the US and other leading producers around the world that rallied around, including the G-20.”

“No. It is not in our interest to do that. It is not in the interest of the global industry to do that. Without the US shale probably, we could have entered into a worse crisis than we are seeing in this pandemic.”

“Everybody has a role to play. We need to balance the various variables. You have supply. You have demand issues compounded by a virus that has triggered a worldwide pandemic and is still ongoing.”

“Therefore, nobody can say for certain what the outlook would be in the short-term, let alone the medium term. We are very much appreciative of the support and the cooperation we are getting from the US both at the level of policymakers as well as from industry.”

“This industry is a global industry. Without the leadership of the US, it would be impossible for any group of countries to be able to maintain sustainable stability.”