OPEC Cuts are working

[dan_s]

OPEC production falling in August. According to PetroLogistics, OPEC production is on track to decline by 419,000 bpd in August, compared to July. The sharp decline comes after a recent monitoring meeting where OPEC officials browbeat laggards within the group, imploring them to step up compliance with the deal. Compliance weakened in June and July, pushing the cartel’s collective output up to a year-to-date high. But fresh data suggests that they are improving the situation, with output dropping so far this month.

OPEC to discuss extending cuts or letting them expire. At the next official OPEC meeting in November, OPEC will reportedly discuss whether or not the group will extend the cuts beyond the March 2018 expiration date. "At our next meeting at the end of November...the most important items will concern the fate of the agreement to extend or terminate the production cut," Kuwait’s oil minister Essam al-Marzouq told Kuwait TV in an interview.

Kuwait: inventories are falling because OPEC deal is working. Kuwait’s oil minister Essam al-Marzouq told CNBC on Monday that U.S. crude oil inventories are declining faster than expected, a sign that the OPEC deal is working as planned. “We are now seeing the impact of those cuts (in the first half of the year) as U.S. oil inventories fall by more than expected,” he said. “Week after week we are seeing a much bigger-than-expected fall in inventories.”