Opec consults 4 countries on expansion: Sec gen

Opec has held consultations with four countries in a bid to expand the group's membership, secretary-general Haitham Al Ghais said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Opec seminar in Vienna, Al Ghais said Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Brunei and Mexico have been consulted. All are already members of the Declaration of Co-operation (DoC) — the framework that was formalised in December 2016 to bring together Opec and 10 non-Opec countries led by Russia — although Mexico has been exempt from adhering to the formal production targets since the middle of 2020.

Al Ghais said Opec does not aim to bring in a certain number of countries, but rather those that have "the same strategic orientation regarding preserving and stabilising oil markets". He said the four that were consulted have been in solidarity with the organisation since 2017.

"They have gone through qualitative challenges during the collapse of the markets and the pandemic in 2020, and therefore all of these countries have the common goal that is in the interest of stabilising the oil markets," he said.

He gave no further details on progress. But his remarks build on earlier statements made by Opec+ ministers that called for more oil producing countries to join them in a bid to gain a larger share of the global market.

"Imagine if we are 60pc of the producers or 70pc of the producers [of the world]," the UAE's energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said at the seminar earlier in the week. "Imagine… we would do a better job." Azerbaijan's energy minister Parviz Shahbazov went further, suggesting "we need to expand beyond the realm of oil and into the energy sector as a whole because we are in a transitional time. We have to act widely."

By Bachar Halabi