UAE 'will adhere to any Opec decision'

The announcement from the country's energy minister comes as Abu Dhabi announced plans to increase production capacity to 5 million bpd by 2030

FILE PHOTO: UAE's Oil Minister OPEC President Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei addresses a news conference after an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, June 22, 2018. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo
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The UAE will adhere to any decision taken by Opec’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee to undertake cuts - if needed - even as Abu Dhabi's Supreme Petroleum Council announced plans to increase production capacity.

“The UAE as any other member state will adhere to whatever decision that will be taken. If we are asked to do anything we will do it, but let’s not jump to assumptions before we discuss,” the country's Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said ahead of the committee’s meeting in Abu Dhabi.

The capital plans to boost oil output capacity to 4 million bpd by 2020 and 5 million bpd by 2030.

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Opec’s monitoring committee headed by Saudi Arabia and Russia is meeting in Abu Dhabi ahead of Vienna, in an energy market environment awash with US crude. The oversupply has turned the market bearish, dragging the price of Brent to as low as $69 a barrel on Friday after rallying around three-year highs of $80 for much of the summer.

US crude has surged to its highest level of 11.6 million bpd according to figures from the Energy Information Administration last week, eclipsing sovereign producers Saudi Arabia and Russia’s output of 10.7 million bpd and 11.4 million bpd, respectively.

Khalid Al Falih, the Saudi Energy Minister, played down the US figures telling reporters "not to take US data too seriously" and the market "was not as oversupplied as people think".