Muscat – Oman’s Minister of Energy and Minerals, H E Mohammed al Rumhi, on Monday said there was no need for OPEC+ group to accelerate oil-production increases, according to a Bloomberg report.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE also signaled OPEC+ will continue raising oil output cautiously, signaling at least some members of the group will continue to resist US pressure for more crude supplies.

OPEC+ is already raising daily supply by 400,000 barrels per month and that’s enough, H E Rumhi said in a Bloomberg interview in Abu Dhabi, where he is attending the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

OPEC+, the 23-nation group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia and which includes Oman, is not concerned about the US potentially releasing oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, H E Rumhi said. That wouldn’t oversupply the market, he added.

H E Rumhi last week also said that the sultanate does not see a need to increase oil supplies beyond what is agreed upon [under the OPEC+ agreement].

Speaking to CNN Arabic on November 7, he said, “We do not see the need to pump more oil than what was agreed upon. The market does not need [more supplies] either from reserves or from oil fields.”

US President Joe Biden has recently called on OPEC+ group to increase the production and bring down oil prices.

OPEC+ is currently increasing daily output by 400,000 barrels per month.

“That should be enough,” UAE’s Energy Minister Suhail al Mazrouei said in an interview in Abu Dhabi, according to Bloomberg.

Mazrouei said the oil market will switch from a supply deficit to a surplus early next year and that’s one of the main reasons for OPEC+ not to be more aggressive.

“All what we know and what all the experts in the world are saying is that we will have a surplus,” he said. “So we need not panic. We need to be calm.”

H E Rumhi’s and Mazrouei’s comments were echoed by Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman.

Oil inventories have fallen rapidly since OPEC+ began deep supply cuts in early 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “But they will begin to rise again from next month. OPEC+ is fulfilling its duty,” Prince Abdulaziz said in a separate interview at ADIPEC, as per the Bloomberg report.

H E Rumhi added that OPEC+ group will probably decide at its December meeting to stick with monthly hikes of 400,000 barrels.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and partners next meet on December 2. Crude prices have climbed around 60 per cent this year to more than US$80 a barrel.