OPEC ready to regulate oil production growth - Barkindo

LONDON / MOSCOW (Reuters) - OPEC and its allies, led by Russia, are ready to adjust their plans to gradually increase oil production by 2 million barrels per day in the coming months, depending on market conditions, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said. On Sunday.

Barkindo spoke at a meeting of OPEC experts and allies, a group known as OPEC +, according to comments published by OPEC. OPEC + will meet on Monday to set production policy for February.

In December, OPEC + decided to increase production by 0.5 million barrels per day from January as part of an increase of 2 million barrels per day, but some members questioned the need for a further increase from February due to the spread of coronavirus infection.

OPEC + was forced to cut production by a record amount in 2020 as global virus isolation measures lowered fuel demand.

OPEC + first cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day, then reduced the cut to 7.7 million and, ultimately, to 7.2 million from January.

Barkindo said OPEC now expects global oil demand to rise to 95.9 million barrels per day in 2021, or 5.9 million barrels per day from 2020, as the global economy is forecast to grow 4.4%.

While the development of coronavirus vaccines has inspired optimism in the global economy and oil markets, rising oil demand will still not be able to bring consumption to pre-pandemic levels of around 100 million barrels per day.

OPEC's latest forecast for December was lower than its previous forecast for growth of 6.25 million barrels per day in 2021 due to the continued impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

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