OPEC loses $1trn to oil price crash

The Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) has lost $1 trillion since the price of crude oil crashed from over $100 per barrel in mid 2014 to as low as $29 per barrel in 2015.
Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, who is the secretary general of OPEC, stated this Monday when he visited Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum resources, in Abuja.
In order to reverse this negative trend, he said, the OPEC leadership was trying to manage and improve the situation using various means.
“We are seeking to adjust about 1.8 million barrels per day within six months in order to address the supply equation that had sent the market off balance since 2014, and today,” he said.
According to him, “I can confidently say that the November 30 meeting of OPEC members and the declaration of consensus on December 10 in Vienna has changed historically the situation, pulling this industry out of the worst recession on a sustainable basis that will allow investments to come back on, as this industry we believe has lost nearly $1 trillion in terms of deferred projects, as well as cancellation of projects, both in the upstream and the downstream.”
Barkindo expressed that together with non-OPEC friends, the organization remained determined to maintain a stable environment to restore confidence for investors and “I have seen the confidence returning even in our domestic industry environment.”
Responding, Kachikwu said OPED deserved someone who is not only skilled but has a bit of intellectual prowess and thinks outside the box because the problems of OPEC are not going to be solved by the traditional nuances.
According to him, “with Barkindo taking over, we have all seen what he has done…He is the most fundamental face changing act of the management of OPEC in recent history because what he did was not just helping us salvage the economies of all member countries but he gave OPEC a new face.”
The minister also explained that OPEC had previously lost credibility and nobody was listening to the organization at strategic global meetings, meaning that they could almost predict that OPEC never reached resolutions.
“However, today, in all the build up that is found in the US of reserves, nobody is looking at that in terms of pricing but at what OPEC will decide,” Kachikwu concluded.