5 October JMMC, Opec+ meetings to be held in person

The coalition of Opec+ ministers and the group's compliance committee will meet in person in Vienna on 5 October, the Opec Secretariat said today, for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

"The Opec secretariat looks forward to welcoming all ministerial delegations again to Vienna," the secretariat said. "These will be the first in-person ministerial meetings since March 2020."

Both the ministers and top delegates that form the Opec+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) will hold their respective meetings that day. The JMMC, which studies the coalition's compliance with its production strategy, typically assembles before Opec+ ministers do. The Opec+ Joint Technical Committee (JTC) that examines market supply-demand fundamentals feeding into group recommendations will likely still meet virtually this month.

New Opec secretary-general Haitham al-Ghais, who assumed his role in August, has been keen to resume in-person meetings, an Opec+ delegate said. It is not immediately clear whether this decision means that the group will exclusively return to in person meetings from now on. The need to respond promptly to market volatility throughout the Covid-19 pandemic saw the alliance resort to monthly meetings, which have been facilitated by a digital format.

Today's announcement came just 24 hours after the secretariat issued a circular to media covering the meetings that they would be held virtually.

Personal stakes

The Opec+ coalition is set to consider a prospective second consecutive cut in production targets when it meets next week, as firm inflation rates and strong US currency threaten to bite into demand, several delegates signalled to Argus this week. The group has only implemented token adjustments since formally unwinding the last of its Covid-19 output cuts in August — it agreed a 100,000 b/d hike in its output target in September, only to reverse it with a same-sized hike in October.

Soaring recessionary risks and a firm US dollar — the standard currency used for both the Ice Brent and Nymex WTI futures contracts, along with most physical transactions — loom large over demand. Revising output quotas down would also formalise the already existing underproduction among several Opec+ members, who are contending with western sanctions, sabotage, a lack of financing and dwindling capacity. Opec+ fell 3.58mn b/d short of meeting its quota in August, delegates said.

By Ruxandra Iordache and Nader Itayim