The 21st Meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) took place via videoconference on Wednesday 19 August 2020, under the Chairmanship of HRH Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, and Co-Chair HE Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation.
The Committee reviewed the monthly report prepared by its Joint Technical Committee (JTC) and developments in the global oil market. The Committee also considered market prospects for the second half of 2020 and for 2021.
The Committee emphasized the ongoing positive contributions of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) in rebalancing of the global oil market. It recalled the historic decisions taken by all Participating Countries in the DoC to adjust downwards overall crude oil production, and the unanimous decisions taken at the 179th Meeting of the OPEC Conference and the 11th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting on 6 June 2020.
The Committee reviewed the crude oil production data for the month of July 2020 and welcomed the significant performance in overall conformity for participating OPEC and non-OPEC countries of the DoC, which was recorded at 97% in July 2020, including Mexico.
The Members of the JMMC reaffirmed their commitment in the DoC to achieve full and timely conformity. In addition, the underperforming Members of the Committee reaffirmed their commitment to compensate for the shortfalls in May, June, and July 2020 by the end of September 2020.
The Committee observed that there are some signs of gradually improving market conditions, including the inventory build in July 2020 being reversed and the lessening of the gap between global oil demand and supply. Nevertheless, the pace of recovery appeared to be slower than anticipated with growing risks of a prolonged wave of COVID-19.
However, the committee emphasized the continued fragility of the market and uncertainty regarding the outlook, especially related to oil demand, and called for vigilance of all participating countries.
The next meetings of the JTC and the JMMC are scheduled for 16 September and 17 September 2020, respectively.