Oil deal exceeding expectations - OPEC

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says the historic oil deal sealed in December is yielding more results that expected.

The Vienna-based oil cartel, said some countries party to the deal are cutting production levels below the points agreed at the December accord.

In its first bulletin for 2017, OPEC said 24 countries have joined in turning a new page in the oil history of the world.

Quoting Alexander Novak, minister of energy of the Russian Federation, OPEC said “the results we are observing … are exceeding our expectations. In fact, many countries are going beyond what has been agreed in December in working strongly to the letter in the spirit of the ‘Declaration’.”

Via a commentary on the bulletin,  OPEC said the projection of Mohammed Barkindo, its secretary-general — that the world was about to turn a historic page in oil history — is now becoming a reality.

“Just a few days after the landmark ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ was signed in December, a delighted OPEC Secretary General, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, said at the Petrotech 2016 Conference in New Delhi, India that the world was on the verge of turning a historic page in global oil.

“Of course, that was before the OPEC/non-OPEC agreement came into force on January 1. Following the positive outcome and confidence expressed at the inaugural meeting of the monitoring committee, the Organization’s chief executive might want to rephrase that statement to ‘has turned’ a historic page.”