Opec has said it will meet informally in September as the oil exporters’ group grapples with a renewed dip in crude prices since its last meeting in June.
Officials from countries will gather on the sidelines of an International Energy Forum biennial conference for ministers in Algeria in late September, the body said in a statement on Monday.
“Opec continues to monitor developments closely, and is in constant deliberations with all member states on ways and means to help restore stability and order to the oil market,” Opec said.
At Opec’s , officials agreed to maintain their strategy of not cutting oil production to support prices. The oil market rebalancing was under way, they said, but they would continue to watch market movements carefully.
Prices had been on the rise, after falling below $30 a barrel at the start of the year. By mid-June Brent crude rose above $50 a barrel as global production outages from Canada to Libya and Nigeria took hold.
But renewed weakness, partly from some of this lost production coming back on to the market, has prompted some Opec members to push again for a production freeze agreement.
A Doha meeting of Opec and non-Opec countries in April, to rein in output that consistently outpaced demand, failed to reach in any agreement.
“The last try a few months ago failed spectacularly,” said analysts at JBC Energy. The latest attempt, they said, “is indicative of the significant pressure some of these producers are under in terms of their economies.”
a barrel last week, far below the prices in excess of $100 a barrel that oil exporting countries came to rely upon to fill their government coffers.
The global benchmark edged higher by 77 cents on Monday to $45.05 a barrel.
Hedge funds and other money managers have cut their overall bets on rising crude oil prices to the lowest level since the start of the year, data from Intercontinental Exchange showed.
Speculators reduced their net long positions for an eighth consecutive week. They were down 28,148 contracts to 260,388 in the week to August 2. The fall was also propelled by a rise in short positions, as bets against a sustained price increase grow.
Higher production from Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and could see Opec production breaking above 34m barrels a day next year, said David Hufton at broker PVM.
“These are not scenarios that add up to higher oil prices,” he said. “Price recovery in 2017 is not a shoo-in.”
Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Qatar’s energy minister and current Opec President, however remained positive about the oil market’s direction.
“Higher oil demand is expected in the third and fourth quarters,” Mr Al-Sada said according to the statement.
The recent decline in oil prices are temporary, Opec said. “These are more of an outcome resulting from weaker refinery margins, inventory overhang — particularly of product stocks, timing of Brexit and its impact on the financial futures markets, including that of crude oil.”
