Even so, OPEC said it would tread cautiously. The organization forecast that 2019 oil consumption will rise 1.14 million b/d year-on-year, a downward revision of 70,000 b/d from last month's report, as "significant downside risks from escalating trade disputes spilling over to global demand growth remain."

Moscow, 5 June 2019. Today, during the official visit of the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping to the Russian Federation, PAO NOVATEK (“NOVATEK” and/or the “Company”), Sinopec and Gazprombank signed Heads of Agreement (“Agreement”) on establishing a joint venture to market LNG and natural gas to end-customers in the People’s Republic of China.

Total world crude oil production increased sharply in 2018 by 1.213 million barrels/day (mb/d), or 1.6%, as compared to 2017, to reach 75.78 mb/d, marking a historical high and the highest annual growth since 2015.

Saudi Arabia produced 9.65 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in May, a Saudi industry source said, a deeper cut than its target set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+.

Russia’s recent oil output is below the 11.18 billion bpd target Moscow has pledged as part of an international deal among producers to curb production to support prices.

Although compliance to the cuts had a slow start, OPEC's JMMC noted in a press release following their meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that compliance had hit a record high of 168% in April 2019. Average conformity reached 120% since January 2019.

Russia’s GDP unexpectedly grew just 0.5% in the first quarter, below all 14 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. That compares with a 2.7% increase in the last three months of 2018, which was the highest in more than six years as crude output reached a record 11.45mn barrels a day in December, according to ministry data as Opec+ curbs eased.

Following its 14th Meeting, which took place on 19 May 2019, in Jeddah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) has reaffirmed its commitment to achieving a balanced market and working towards oil market stability on a sustainable basis with solid fundamentals.

"We want to bring inventories down to a more normal levels," Falih said. "We need to stay the course and do that in the weeks and months to come."

Russia sees a range of options that would allow OPEC+ to continue output cooperation until year-end, from easing the limits to ending the extreme throttling-back that has seen some countries exceed original cutback targets.