|By Arabian Post Staff|After a period of near desperation, oil is once again getting into the limelight, with crude trading near the highest close in two weeks in the wake of OPEC plans for informal talks to control supply.
Qatar Oil Minister Mohammed Al Sada said the other day that OPEC members are in “constant deliberations” on stabilizing the market, although it is not clear if there are any plans to revive the output freeze idea that was unsuccessfully floated earlier.
While U.S. crude and fuel stockpiles remain at the highest seasonal level in at least two decades, Goldman Sachs has forecast that the market will be in a modest deficit during the second half of 2016.
“Even if a freeze were to materialize, it is unlikely to impact physical OPEC supplies,” Bloomberg quoted Seth Kleinman, European head of energy research at Citigroup Inc. in London, as saying. “It would be more a signal of OPEC’s ability to coordinate action.”
The Qatar Oil Minister said that the recent decline in prices and current volatility was temporary and that there would be higher demand during the third and fourth quarters of this year.
