Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said that accelerated stocks drawdown would help rebalance the market and establish the "equilibrium oil price".
OPEC's latest monthly oil market report, issued on Wednesday, said OECD commercial stocks stood at 2.993 billion barrels in November. Barkindo noted that world oil stocks need to decline by at least another 270 million barrels to reach a five-year industry average for OPEC to be able to say the markets are becoming balanced.
In an interview with Sputnik late-Thursday, Barkindo noted that the OPEC deal will bring stability to global oil markets. "Stocks have already come down to below 3 billion barrels in OECD commercial stocks. The delta now (with the five-year average) is around 270 million," he said.
OPEC and non-OPEC producers agreed to establish a joint ministerial monitoring committee and Barkindo said a meeting this weekend in Vienna would adopt an oversight and compliance mechanism. OPEC will meet in May when it will decide whether to propose to extend the output cutting measures together with non-OPEC countries.