Saudi says OPEC+ must be ready to react to market needs

OPEC+ oil producers must be prepared to respond to the market and should stick by their agreements, Saudi Arabia's energy minister said on Tuesday. OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and others, is considering delaying its plans to increase oil output in January as demand for fuel has remained under pressure due to the coronavirus crisis.

"We as a group do not want to give the markets any excuse to react negatively," Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at the start of a virtual meeting of the OPEC+ panel, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC).

"The markets will not be kind to those who do not stick to agreements. This is why we must be prepared to act according to the requirements of the market. I recently said we must be ready to tweak the terms of our agreement if need be," he said.

The JMMC can recommend policy steps to OPEC+, which agreed record oil cuts this year. Some members of OPEC+ have exceeded their agreed output quotas. The group's existing cuts of 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) were due to ease to 5.7 million bpd in January. That plan is now being reviewed due to persistent weak demand, OPEC+ sources say.