The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and participating Non-OPEC producing countries that are part of the Declaration of Co-operation have recorded the highest recorded conformity with their voluntary adjustments in production, achieving a level of 116 percent, according to a report by the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee, JMMC, for the month of August.

At its fifth meeting, which took place today in Vienna, Austria, the JMMC welcomed the participation of Iraq, Libya and Nigeria while reaffirming their commitment to work closely with other participating oil-producing countries, to ensure the success of the Declaration of Co-operation, the JMMC said in a press release on Friday.

The President of the OPEC Conference, Khalid A. Al-Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who participated in the meeting by telephone, reaffirmed the necessity of additional work to be undertaken by under-performing participating countries, to raise their conformity levels to 100 percent.

In August 2017, OPEC member countries and participating non-OPEC producing countries have achieved an excellent conformity level of 116 percent, the highest since the start of the Declaration of Co-operation, further highlighting the resolute commitment of participating oil-producing countries to co-operate in rebalancing the market.

The JMMC also highlighted the critical importance for all participating oil-producing countries to reach or exceed the 100 percent conformity rate while recommending that the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Technical Committee, JTC, should continue to build on the progress made at the JTC Extraordinary Session, held in Abu Dhabi on 8th August.

The JMMC also noted recent market developments and expressed their confidence that the oil market is moving in the right direction, towards the objectives of the Declaration of Co-operation. Recent data confirmed that the global oil demand growth in 2017 is now better than expected while for 2018, global oil demand is anticipated to be robust.

Commercial oil stocks in the OECD fell further in August and the difference to the latest five-year average has been reduced by 168 million barrels since the beginning of the year. However, another 170 million barrels of stock overhang remains to be depleted.

The JMMC will continue to monitor other factors in the oil market and their influence on the ongoing market rebalancing process. All options have been left open, to ensure that every effort can be made to rebalance the market for the benefit of all.

The next JMMC meeting is scheduled to be held in Vienna on 29th November, 2017.

The JMMC was established following OPEC’s 171st Ministerial Conference Decision on 30th November, 2016, and the subsequent Declaration of Co-operation was made at the joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries’ Ministerial Meeting that was held on 10th December, 2016, where 11, now 10, non-OPEC oil producing countries co-operated with the 13, now 14, OPEC member countries, to accelerate the stabilisation of the global oil market, through voluntary adjustments in total world oil production to around 1.8 million barrels per day. The resulting six-month declaration came into effect on 1st January, 2017.