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The Secretary General of (OPEC) stresses the importance of the role of (OPEC +) in stabilizing the oil markets

28-04-2023

Secretary-General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Haitham Al-Ghais, stressed today, Thursday, the importance of the role of the (OPEC +) group in stabilizing the oil markets compared to the energy markets that witnessed many fluctuations. This came in a statement by Al-Ghais in response to the recent comments issued by the International Energy Agency in which it criticized OPEC, adding that "if anything leads to future fluctuations, this is the source of the repeated calls issued by the International Energy Agency to stop investing in the oil sector." He explained that "all expectations based on economic data indicate the need to provide more of this precious commodity to fuel global economic growth and prosperity in the coming decades, especially in developing countries." He stressed the need for the International Energy Agency to be cautious about the issue of undermining the oil industry investments that it promotes, noting that "the International Energy Agency is well aware that there are conflicting factors affecting the markets." He referred to some of these factors, including the side effects of the Corona virus pandemic, monetary policies and stock movements, indicating that "holding the oil sector alone responsible for inflation is technically wrong, as there are many other factors that caused this." The (OPEC) had announced last year to replace dealing with the International Energy Agency agencies (Wood Mackenzie) and (Rystad Energy) as secondary sources for evaluating the oil production of the member states of the organization. This decision came in the wake of the 183rd extraordinary meeting of (OPEC) countries at the end of March 2022. At that time, the organization confirmed its support for all measures aimed at improving data transparency by organizing meetings with a number of organizations and economic agencies concerned with preparing secondary reports, in a way that improves the accuracy, quality and timeliness of data.