OPEC WILL REDUCE

REUTERS - OPEC will need to extend supply cuts when it meets next week to end years of global oil oversupply, oil ministers from two OPEC members said on Wednesday, just over a week before the group meets to discuss supply policy.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, non-member Russia and nine other producers agreed to curb oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018. They are expected to extend the deal at a Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna.

Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is lobbying oil ministers to extend output cuts by nine months, sources familiar with the matter said.

"In my view, an extension of the agreement will help us in stabilizing the market," Qatar Oil Minister Mohammed al-Sada said on the sidelines of a gas exporter meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on Wednesday.

OPEC has been successful in bringing global oil inventories closer to their five-year average, but the group needs more time to tighten supply further, he said.

The oil market has found some balance as inventories decline, Venezuela's Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said at the same event. He put the optimal price for crude at between $60 and $70 dollars a barrel to encourage investment.

U.S. crude hit a two-year high of $58.05 a barrel on Wednesday, while Brent crude rose 55 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $63.12 a barrel.

Rising U.S. shale oil production has made it harder for OPEC to reduce the global glut. U.S. output hit a weekly record this week at more than 9.6 million bpd, approaching the 10 million bpd monthly record output levels reached in the 1970s.

ANOTHER EXCESS

The gas market, which also facing oversupply due to growing output of shale gas and rising production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), could find a balance around 2025 after the excess of supply peaks in 2020, al-Sada said.

In anticipation of that balance, Qatar this year lifted a self-imposed ban on the development of the world's biggest natural gas field, which will allow it to boost production in coming years.

The vast offshore gas field shared with Iran accounts for nearly all Qatar's gas output and around 60 percent of its export revenue.

The chairman of Spain's Repsol, Antonio Brufau, said the global gas market is undergoing a deep transformation with rising LNG supply, lower production costs and traditional suppliers considering non-conventional projects such as shale.

"LNG is shaking up the market," he said.

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Earlier:

2017, November, 17, 19:50:00 RUSSIA'S OIL PAUSE FT - The original deal with Opec’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, brokered by Mr Novak and Russian president Vladimir Putin, reduced oil production from participating countries by 1.8m barrels a day and helped push the price of benchmark Brent Crude above $60 a barrel this week for the first time in more than two years. Русский | English

2017, November, 15, 15:20:00 IEA COOLS THE MARKET BLOOMBERG - Prices dropped during the session as the International Energy Agency said the recent recovery in oil prices, coupled with milder-than-normal winter weather, is slowing demand growth. The worsening outlook for consumption dampened some of the enthusiasm that OPEC and its allies will extend supply curbs.

2017, November, 9, 14:00:00 OPEC: 2040 GLOBAL ENERGY CHANGES Within the grouping of Developing countries, India and China are the two nations with the largest additional energy demand over the forecast period, both in the range of 22–23 mboe/d.

2017, October, 25, 12:30:00 OIL PRICES NO OPPORTUNITIES "They [big OPEC and Middle Eastern producers] cannot be too ambitious [on their oil price targets]...there's not much [upside] room for them to hope for," Sadamori said. "Once the oil price goes to certain levels, this will stimulate new drilling and investments in North America," he added.

2017, October, 20, 12:35:00 OPEC AND RUSSIA CUTTING Russia’s readiness to back an extension of the supply cuts agreement between Opec and its allies until the end of 2018 has prompted oil ministers to seek widespread support for the proposal, Opec’s secretary-general said on Thursday.

2017, October, 16, 11:40:00 OPEC EXPECTATION The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia have been cutting oil production this year to bring fuel inventories in industrialized nations back in line with the five-year average.

2017, October, 6, 12:50:00 NEW OIL COALITION As the world's two largest oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia have led the 24-country OPEC/non-OPEC coalition in its 1.8 million b/d supply cut, which is scheduled to end in March.