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OPEC/non-OPEC coalition schedules extra meeting ahead of Sep 23 Algiers meeting: sources

The monitoring committee set up by OPEC and non-OPEC producers is already set to meet in Algiers on September 23, but they have now scheduled yet another meeting on September 11 as the coalition attempts to come up with a new production strategy, sources close to the producer group told S&P Global Platts.

The six-country Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which is chaired by Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih and includes ministers from Russia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Algeria and Oman, had been scheduled to hold a conference call Monday but this was canceled, to be replaced by another meeting on September 11 to assess market conditions and discuss the coalition’s next steps.

No location for the September 11 meeting has been set so far. The states were still “exploring different options” for how to monitor overall conformity to the OPEC/non-OPEC agreement, one source said.

Meanwhile, the Joint Technical Committee, made up of representatives from the same six countries, did go ahead with a conference call Monday to discuss the state of the market. Iran, though not holding a seat on either committee, has increasingly sought to press its case to the group. Its national representative took part in the conference call, and Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh also plans to attend the Algiers meeting.

Initial estimates gathered from Platts trade flow software cFlow suggest that Iran’s oil crude and condensate exports have plummeted to 1.68 million b/d in the first 16 days of August, down more than 600,000 b/d from loadings averaging 2.32 million b/d in July as a whole. The decline is likely to accelerate as traders look to complete their shipments ahead of the November 4 sanctions deadline.

OPEC and its partners agreed in late June to raise output by 1 million b/d. Given some countries are unable to pump more; a split has emerged on how to proceed. Saudi Arabia argues that the agreement should use a collective production ceiling, with the JMMC responsible for reallocating production quotas. Iran’s Zanganeh maintains that the OPEC/non-OPEC production deal does not allow countries to produce more than their individual quotas. Platta,com