OPEC Cuts A Deal

30 Sep 2016: OPEC has recaptured the spotlight in recent days with their announcement that they plan to reduce output to “stabilize the oil markets”. At the conclusion of their consultative meeting in Algiers, Algeria on September 28, the Conference announced that they opted for an OPEC-14 production target ranging between 32.5 and 33.0 million barrels per day (mb/d), “in order to accelerate the ongoing drawdown of the stock overhang and bring the rebalancing forward”. The clear objective of OPEC is to push up oil prices. In the short term, that appears to be working, since global oil prices jumped nearly 6% after news of the deal broke, the largest one day increase since April. The impact of these OPEC moves on the tanker market (if any) will not be known for a while, because it depends on a number of factors that we will discuss below. Download Here