12.01.201709:32:00UTC+00Global Oil Inventories Likely to fall by Q2 2017, says Opec Secretary-General mohammed Barkindo

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference said that OPEC expects to see global oil inventories fall by the second quarter of this year in response to producers' agreement to cut output.

Barkindo said OPEC had no specific oil price objective in mind, but wanted a price that would sustain investment in the oil industry. He expressed confidence that producers were committed to the deal between OPEC and non-OPEC states. He acknowledged that there has been encouraging signs of commitment from many countries with regard to implementation of production cuts.

Sounding optimistic on compliance of the OPEC oil output cut deal, Barkindo said that he had no reason to doubt Iraq will fully implement cuts. Iraq's Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi has announced oil output cut of 160K bpd under OPEC production cut deal.

Analysts however, remain skeptical about the implementation of OPEC deal. There is still doubt among many market watchers over whether the planned cuts will be enough to rebalance a market that has been oversupplied for the past two years.