Saudi oil minister seeks trust for deeper cuts

Saudi Arabia's oil minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman today called for faith and trust as the Opec+ producer group strives to formalize an agreement to deepen output cuts.

"Like religion, if you are believer you have to practice. Without practice, you are a non-believer. I do not assume anyone in the room is a non-believer. We are here to deliver. The market will have to trust us, the analysts will have to believe us. Without [this] we cannot deliver what we want to achieve, it is as simple as that," Prince Abdulaziz said.

Opec representatives met yesterday to consider a recommendation by the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which oversees compliance with the agreement to remove 1.2mn b/d from the market, to cut output by an additional 500,000 b/d in the first quarter of next year. Late in the day, after a drawn-out and contentious meeting, the group reached a preliminarily agreement, which requires ratification by the expanded Opec+ group today.

"It is almost disheartening to see people laboring, even last night until 11pm at night, squashing their heads, squeezing their brains, in a way trying to deliver us to a good agreement and a good continuity to what we all have a firm believers of," Prince Abdulaziz said.

But, he is confident that his first Opec+ meeting will have a positive outcome.

"With the end of this meeting we will be able to… show what we have committed to in the past and what we will be committing ourselves to in the future will be abruptly adhered to attended to and not only that, we are making ways for further, more shorter-term consultations in the form of meetings to assure ourselves and the market that this market will not be left unattended."

Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that the Opec+ group will hold an extraordinary meeting in March to review market conditions and determine what action, if any, will be required following the expiration of the current deal.

Opec+ co-chair, Russia's oil minister Alexander Novak, expanded on his Saudi counterpart's comments. "It is extremely important in today's conditions to send a very clear message to the market and to show and determine what the next steps will be," he said.

By Iain Packham