Following its 14th Meeting, which took place on 19 May 2019, in Jeddah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) has reaffirmed its commitment to achieving a balanced market and working towards oil market stability on a sustainable basis with solid fundamentals.

The JMMC expressed its satisfaction regarding the critical role which the ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ (DoC) played in the oil market recovery seen in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, supported by high conformity to the voluntary production adjustments by participating countries. Conformity for the month of April 2019 was 168%, and this record high figure has also had positive ramifications for global economic growth in the first four months of 2019. Average conformity has reached 120% since January 2019.

The Committee noted that an agile and flexible approach has been critical to the success of the DoC to date and will be key going forward. Since the DoC was signed on 10 December 2016, the partners have been able to adapt course depending on market conditions. When the market appeared skewed to oversupply, voluntary production adjustments were adopted and implemented, as was the case in December 2016 and December 2018, and equally, when concerns regarding demand outpacing supply surfaced as the market tightened, as was the case in June 2018, partners in the DoC took appropriate action.

In analyzing current oil market conditions and macroeconomic developments, the Committee also recognized that critical uncertainties remain, including ongoing trade negotiations, monetary policy developments and geopolitical challenges. The JMMC requested that the Joint Technical Committee and the OPEC Secretariat continue to monitor and analyze oil market developments and, particularly, oil inventory projections in the coming weeks with a view to the next JMMC meeting making a recommendation to the OPEC Conference and OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, which are scheduled to meet in June 2019, regarding appropriate actions on the part of participating countries for the second half of 2019.

The JMMC expressed its appreciation for the excellent logistical arrangements for the meeting and thanked His Excellency, Khalid A. Al-Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of the JMMC, for his gracious hospitality, as well as commending all officials and representatives from Saudi Arabia and the OPEC Secretariat who were involved in organizational matters.

The 15th JMMC Meeting is scheduled to take place in June 2019 at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria.

About OPEC

In accordance with its Statute, the mission of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.