18
ENERGY NEWS SPONSORED BY
Smart Procurement At Craig International, procurement isn’t just about processes, products and numbers. We promote a culture of ownership among our people, who are trusted to get on with the job on your behalf. We’re proud of how we serve clients.
www.craig-international.com
We’re always looking for new ways to add value and routinely introduce new technological solutions to make service delivery even simpler, smoother, faster.
By Tsvetana Paraskova
OPEC+ keeps oil production plans unchanged At their regular monthly meeting on 2 December, the ministers of the OPEC+ alliance decided to continue easing the collective oil production cuts by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January, despite expectations from the market and some analysts that the group would opt for pausing the increase in their production at least for January, in view of the oil price slide at the end of November and the high uncertainty about how the Omicron COVID variant could impact global oil demand in coming weeks and months. The ministers, however, opted for keeping the meeting “open,” allowing themselves flexibility to immediately change course if demand starts being severely hit by the new travel restrictions in some countries. The ministers “Agree that the meeting shall remain in session pending further developments of the pandemic and continue to monitor the market closely and make immediate adjustments if required,” OPEC said after the meeting, noting that it “remains in session.” In addition, the OPEC+ group decided to extend the compensation period until the end of June 2022 for the producers that had produced above their quotas over the past year and a half. Oil prices fell immediately after the meeting on December 2, but hours later they had already erased losses and rebounded, as the market was calmed by the flexible approach that OPEC+ could change course if demand stumbles and by the group’s attempt to preserve stability in its monthly decisions. Despite the fact that all forecasts point to a surplus on the oil market coming as soon as the first quarter of 2022, investors and
www.ogv.energy I January 2022
The surprise outcome of the OPEC+ meeting in December and many major deals involving the largest oil and gas companies in the Middle East were the highlights of the region’s energy landscape in the last month of the year.
