Exclusive: Saudi’s Falih – U.S., China driving oil demand; no April OPEC policy change

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday that China and the U.S. would lead healthy global demand for oil this year but that it would be too early to change OPEC+ output policy at the group’s next meeting in April.

OPEC and its allies will meet in Vienna on April 17-18 and another gathering is scheduled for June 25-26.

On Jan. 1, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia and other non-members — the OPEC+ alliance — began new production cuts to avoid a supply glut that threatened to soften prices.

The group agreed to reduce supply by 1.2 million barrels per day for six months.

OPEC’s share is 800,000 bpd, to be delivered by 11 members — all except Iran, Libya and Venezuela, which are exempt from cuts. The baseline for the reduction was in most cases their output in October 2018.

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