MEDIATRACNET
The current stability in the international crude oil market was possible with the commitment of member countries to the Document of Cooperation between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC members, OPEC Secretary General, Haitham Al Ghais, has said.
Al Ghais, who stated this on Saturday in a message to mark the sixth anniversary of the agreement, said the agreement also helped in securing global energy security.
“The Declaration of Cooperation is an unprecedented collaborative framework of 23 oil-producing countries that is based on trust, mutual respect and dialogue. Six years later, the framework continues to play an instrumental role in supporting market stability, which is essential for growth and development, as well as attracting the necessary investment to ensure energy security,” Al Ghais said.
“The commitment of the DoC participants to a stable oil market has once again been evident following the severe oil market contraction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”, he added.
The OPEC scribe said these efforts supported the global pandemic recovery process, and was recognized at the highest levels of government and by other international organisations and academia.
The six year old DoC signed by 23 oil producing countries was aimed at securing sustainable oil market stability through cooperation and dialogue, including at the research and technical levels, for the benefit of all producers, consumers and investors as well as the global economy at large.
On December 10, 2016, OPEC member countries and non-OPEC members met at the OPEC headquarters, in Vienna, and decided to establish the DoC as a platform for cooperation and dialogue in the interest of oil market stability.
The OPEC members include Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
The non-OPEC members include Azerbaijan, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei, Darussalam, Equatorial Guinea (which later joined OPEC), Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, The Sultanate of Oman, The Russian Federation, The Republic of Sudan, and The Republic of South Sudan.
Other producers attended the meeting in support of these extraordinary efforts.
Al Ghais said the pivotal decisions taken at the inaugural OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting built on the successful ‘Algiers Accord’ signed in Algiers, Algeria, on September 28, 2016 at the 170th (Extraordinary) meeting of the OPEC conference and the subsequent ‘Vienna Agreement’ decided on November 30 of the same year in Vienna, Austria, at the 171st meeting of the OPEC conference,” Al Ghais said in the statement.
