By Teddy Nwanunobi
The Economic Commission Board (ECB), the economic and technical think-tank of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has commenced a two-day meeting on Tuesday via videoconference to conduct a review the global oil market and the world economy at large.
Valuechain reports that it is the ECB’s 135th meeting.
According to a statement from Vienna in Austria, the meeting will also address key topics that are relevant to the energy industry, such as investment, recovery expectations, and short- and long-term prospects of crude production.
OPEC’s Secretary General, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, opened the meeting by highlighting the vital and critical role of the Board in enriching the organisation’s decision-making process through thorough and detailed analyses of market conditions and emerging trends.
The Secretary General underscored the importance of the Secretariat’s outreach efforts to strengthen the producer-consumer dialogue and share the latest market insights in the interest of sustainable oil market stability.
Barkindo underlined the strategic role of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) in overcoming two global oil cycle downturns in 2015 and 2020, the later caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that participating countries have set up solid mechanisms to contribute to the return of oil market stability, including meeting on a monthly basis to review market conditions.
“DoC participating countries have taken proactive and pre-emptive actions to help reduce volatility, stabilise the oil market and provide a flexible platform for recovery with potentially broader participation in the coming years,” Barkindo added.
Valuechain also reports that the process has been underpinned by three key principles: transparency, equity and fairness.
Statutorily, the ECB meets twice a year in advance of the biannual ordinary meetings of the OPEC conference, which are held in June and December.
It comprises the Secretary General as the chairman, and the national representatives of OPEC member countries as members.
The ECB’s 135th meeting is convening ahead of the 9th Technical Meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries participating in the DoC, the 53rd meeting of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC), and the 31st meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) planned for 17, 29 and 30 June, respectively, as well as the 181st meeting of the OPEC conference, and the 18th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting scheduled for 1 July.