Iraqi oil minister expects rise in oil prices at start of 2019

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq's Oil Minister stated on Sunday that he sees “an improvement” in potential oil prices at the beginning of 2019 after members and non-members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) recently decided to decrease oil production.

“We are optimistic that the current fall in prices will stop because there is no more oversupply in the market,” said Thamir Ghadhban at a meeting of OPEC in Kuwait, quoted by Reuters. 

Ghadhban’s comment comes after the oil prices fell on Friday to their lowest since the third quarter of 2017. The Iraqi official has previously stated that the price decrease in the international market was not in the interest of the oil producing countries.

The decision to cut oil production in early December came three days after Ghadhban had earlier said that OPEC should devise a long-term strategy to stabilize the price of crude oil and reduce damage to oil markets affected by geopolitics. 

During Sunday’s OPEC meeting, Qatar's Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi stated that it was a difficult period for oil prices.

“There’s an oversupply of stock,” he said, pumped from some countries including Saudi Arabia, “with no justification.” 

Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer following Saudi Arabia, almost entirely relies on oil to generate its revenue. Over the past few years, the country has faced budget deficits due to the market’s unstable oil prices.  

Editing by John J. Catherine