HE Issam A. Almarzooq, Kuwait’s Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water, and Chairman of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee delivered the opening remarks to the second Meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which took place at the Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel in Kuwait

Almarzooq commended His Excellency Alexander Novak, the Russia's Minister of Energy, and His Excellency Jabbar Al Luiebi, the Iraqi Minister of Oil,  their participation in the event and Novak's serving as Alternate Chairman of the Committee. 

HS Issam A. Almarzooq recalled and praised the work achieved at OPEC's 171st Ministerial Conference decision on 30 November 2016 and at the Declaration of Cooperation made at the joint OPEC-non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, which took place on 10 December 2016. 

"These landmark efforts were made because the oil industry could no longer continue along the same path it was on in 2015 and 2016.  Something had to be done to address the major challenges that were suffocating the industry, and impacting current and future oil supplies.  Producers everywhere recognized the need to stimulate the acceleration of the drawdown of the stock overhang, in order to bring the necessary market rebalancing forward, and ensure that much-needed investments returned to the industry."

"In support of this historic cooperation, this Committee, which concluded its inaugural meeting on 22 January at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, put together a framework of monitoring mechanisms.  We are so far pleased with the level of conformity to this framework."

"Our task here today is to discuss oversight and conformity issues, and to then report to the OPEC-non-OPEC Ministerial  Meeting on the 25th of May, the status of implementation.  So far, we have seen some progress, with very positive signs that the conformity from both OPEC and non-OPEC countries has successfully been demonstrated to the outside world." 

HE Almarzooq went on to outline the current oil outlook and what the committee were hoping to achieve. 

"I want to emphasize here that some producers have over-performed.  They certainly deserve recognition for their efforts.  So I would like to expressly offer my appreciation to both Angola and Saudi Arabia for conforming beyond expectation.  I hope their achievements will motivate other participants to reach their own goals – and perhaps to even go further."

"Meanwhile, some other countries have not been able to meet their production adjustments due to temporary difficulties."

"I would like to candidly say that, in general, more has to be done.  We need to see conformity across the board.  We assured ourselves – and the world – that we would reach our adjustment to 100 per cent conformity."

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