Argus media<\/a><\/noindex>.<\/p>\nIn a CNBC interview, the minister said he was unaware of any negotiations to bring Abu Dhabi on board with a so-far failed proposal to increase production by 400,000 b\/d each month over August 2021-December 2022, with an option for a three-month stoppage period. If the pause is not invoked, the remaining 5.8 million b\/d of the group\u2019s original 9.7 million b\/d cut will be unwound by September next year, Abdulaziz said.<\/p>\n
The proposal, crafted by Saudi Arabia and Russia, was floated last week during OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) talks and a ministerial-level OPEC+ assembly without success. A second ministerial OPEC+ meeting initially scheduled on July 5 did not take place amid ongoing UAE opposition to extending the deal from its original April 2022 expiry until the end of next year without adjusting the Mideast country\u2019s production baseline to better reflect its increased capacity.<\/p>\n
Abdulaziz stressed that the group retains an existing deal until next April, despite the current impasse to stretch it out until the end of 2022. He said ongoing uncertainties in oil markets relating to the prospective return of Iranian and Venezuelan barrels, along with the spread of the COVID pandemic, justified a deal extension so that the group may \u201cattend to the consumer requirement and yet we don\u2019t abandon the stability and sustainability that a producer requires.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current deal included a clause to review a potential extension this December, the Saudi oil minister said, accommodating last year\u2019s concerns on behalf of some countries that hesitated to commit to efforts that exceeded two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we did not put that [extension review] clause, then, the whole world\u2026 it would become like a ticking clock. Or a ticking bomb. And when that end of April [2022] would come, then the world would live with a reality that still there is a 5.8 million b\/d still to be attended to, attended for,\u201d Abdulaziz said.<\/p>\n
The extension proposal had garnered nearly unanimous support during the July 2 ministerial discussions, he said. \u201cIt really addresses everyone\u2019s concerns: ensuring the market will not be short of volumes, carefully bringing that volume in a gradual phase-in, [and continuing] the mechanism of posing or even increasing or decreasing, which is very assuring for the market.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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