Omicron Variant: OPEC to consider output  increase

… Replaces Barkindo as Secretary General

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, says there are opportunities that may guarantee further increase in output.

The group met on Monday to discuss the appointment of a new Secretary General to succeed Nigeria’s Mohammad Barkindo.

OPEC+ expects the impact on the oil market from the Omicron coronavirus variant to be mild and temporary, keeping the door open for a further increase in output, a technical report showed on Sunday.

“The impact of the new Omicron variant is expected to be mild and short-lived, as the world becomes better equipped to manage COVID-19 and its related challenges,” the Joint Technical Committee, JTC, report said.

“This is in addition to a steady economic outlook in both the advanced and emerging economies,” it added.

Yesterday’s meeting  is to be followed by a meeting of OPEC and allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, on Tuesday (today), to debate whether to go ahead with raising output targets by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in February.

The JTC also met on Monday to discuss market fundamentals.

In the report’s base scenario, OECD commercial oil stocks in 2022 will remain below the 2015-2019 average in the first three quarters, and rising above that average by 24 million barrels in the fourth quarter.

The scenario assumes 40 million barrels are released from strategic petroleum reserves in the first half of the year, and that 13.3 million barrels are returned to the U.S. strategic reserve in the third quarter.

The report kept forecasts for the growth in oil demand in 2021 and 2022 unchanged at 5.7 million bpd and 4.2 million bpd respectively.