UAE Oil Minister Says OPEC Not Considering Output Cut As Brent Falls Below $46 To Lowest Level In Nearly Six Years

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Oil Minister, Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui, said on Tuesday that the fall in oil prices was not justified, as the price in Brent crude oil fell below $46 a barrel in Asian trading hours to the lowest level in nearly six years.

The UAE Oil Minister, speaking at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi, said that he remained confident that the November decision by OPEC not to cut oil output was the right decision.

If OPEC had decided then to cut, “we will be regretting it today,” Mazroui said.

The Oil Minister said that OPEC has no intention of meeting prior to its next meeting which is scheduled for June, or of cutting production.

The Minister said that OPEC won’t adjust oil output and that they are telling the market and other producers that they need to be rational.

Non-OPEC producers will need to curtail oil output according to growth, he noted.

The Oil Minister avoided giving any specific value for where he saw a fair value in the price of oil and noted that the crude market has a glut of around 2 million barrels per day.

Oil prices will take time to stabilize, Mazroui said, and this could take two or three years depending on how rational producers are.

The Minister also ruled out the possibility of a sudden rebound in the price of oil.