OPEC+ To Hold JMMC Meeting Next Month

OPEC+ will hold a Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting sometime in early February, three sources said on Tuesday, according to media. OPEC+ typically holds JMMC meetings every other month, although volatile market conditions and member unrest have sometimes prompted the group to schedule meetings outside the every-other-month schedule.

OPEC+ members collectively decided to voluntarily cut 2.2 million bpd from the group’s production this quarter, although much of that was production cuts that were already in effect, including Saudi Arabia’s 1 million bpd voluntary cut. While many OPEC+ members voluntarily agreed to cut their crude oil production, others—such as Angola—were as happy about what they were asked to produce. Not long after the previous full ministerial meeting on November 30, Angola decided to quit its membership in OPEC, citing the lack of benefits for the African member who recently had its production quota lowered to align with actual production.

The OPEC+ production cuts that are currently in effect are only scheduled to last through the end of the current quarter—and it’s highly unlikely that the production cuts are going to be in full effect on January 1, after only being agreed to on November 30. That means that the JMMC will only have a partial month—at best—of production data to review if the meeting is held sometime in early February.

While beyond the JMMC’s purview, which is focused on member conformity, OPEC will, have another couple of months’ worth of crude oil demand data that the group could use to determine whether the voluntary production cuts should be in place beyond the first quarter—or even end early. U.S. shale production, which hit an all-time high last year, has threatened to undermine OPEC’s efforts to balance the market.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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