- As Police say grenade blast kills 8 in Burundi
The decision on whether to invite Libya and Nigeria to a meeting of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Technical Committee (JTC) to monitor the implementation of the oil output cut deal will be made within two weeks.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told journalists on Monday: “we have now talked with [OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo, there will be a conversation with them within these two weeks.
“Maybe they will be invited to the Technical Committee’s meeting.”
On May 25, the JMMC convened in Vienna, Austria, for its third meeting and recommended for additional nine months production cut extension when the ministers of the member countries meet.
The committee stated that, based on the report of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Technical Committee (JTC) for the month of April 2017, OPEC and participating non-OPEC producing countries have shown steady and convincing progress towards full conformity with their respective adjustments in production.
The JMMC was established following OPEC’s 171st Ministerial Conference Decision of Nov. 30, 2016.
The subsequent Declaration of Cooperation was made at the joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Producing Countries’ Ministerial Meeting held on Dec. 10, 2016.
Eleven non-OPEC oil producing countries cooperated with the 13 OPEC member countries in an effort to accelerate the stabilisation of the global oil market through adjustments in oil production of around 1.8 million barrels per day.
Oil prices remained steady as at May 24 at the international market trading above 50 dollars per arrel, as the traders await formal declaration of the production cut extension.
Next, the JMMC took note of the current market conditions, including the level of global inventories, and concluded that it is necessary to extend the production adjustments.
The Committee also took note of the fact that the duration of the anticipated extension should be longer than the originally stated period in the Declaration of Cooperation of six months.
The JMMC then considered several scenarios presented by the JTC regarding the extension of the Declaration of Cooperation and decided to recommend that the production adjustments of the participating countries be extended for nine months commencing July 1.
In the meantime, police said on Monday that eight people were killed in a grenade blast in one of the deadliest attacks in Burundi in recent months.
Police spokesperson Pierre Nkurikiye said that an unidentified attacker threw a grenade into a crowd in the northern locality of Gatara late Sunday.
Nkurikiye said: “four people died on the spot after the explosion and about 54 others were injured.’’
The spokesprson said that the four of the injured victims died in hospital.
According to the police, the attack was believed to have targeted the manager of several state-owned coffee-producing companies.
Police said that the manager’s car was damaged, but he was not injured.
Grenade and gun attacks have been a frequent occurence since President Pierre Nkurunziza won a third term in a July 2015 election despite the constitutional two-term limit.
Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term unleashed a political crisis that has led to hundreds of people being killed by police, the ruling party’s youth wing, and armed opposition groups.
