KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) — Oil markets have already begun to rebalance after strong signs that producers are complying with output cuts, Kuwait Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouk said on Wednesday.
“We are confident that rebalancing in the oil markets has already started,” Marzouk said.
“We expect a positive impact on the market by the end of the first quarter of 2017,” he told a conference organised by Petroleum Intelligence.
Marzouk said that signs indicate that OPEC and non-OPEC producers who agreed in December to reduce output by a total of 1.8 million barrels per day “are complying with their commitments to cut.”
Marzouk heads a five-country committee tasked with monitoring the implementation of the landmark deal.
The committee met in Vienna on Sunday and said that compliance with the six-month accord, which took effect on January 1, had been very encouraging.
The aim is to reduce a global glut that has depressed oil prices and blown a huge hole in the public finances of producer nations, despite being good news for consumers.
Marzouk said that compliance with the cuts “represents a guarantee for the price to recover to levels that encourage investments and ensure that crude stocks return to normal levels.”
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