Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, Khalid al-Falih, on Monday advised oil producing countries to cut output by one million barrels per day to re-balance the market as crude prices continue to sag in the market

Falih, who spoke a joint OPEC non-OPEC ministerial monitoring committee meeting in Abu Dhabi, said that “the technical analysis we reviewed yesterday shows that we need a reduction approaching one million bpd to balance the market.”

According to him, his country, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil supplier, will cut its production by 500,000 bpd as of next month to help stabilise the market.

Falih pointed out further that there had been a marked buildup in inventories, adding that “the 25 producers will not allow this to continue” and that there were “signals” they would do “whatever it takes to balance the market”.

OPEC and non-OPEC energy ministers are due to meet in early December in Vienna to assess the global market.

It would be recalled that crude oil lost almost a fifth of its value over the past month due to supply glut and signs of less impact from US sanctions on Iranian crude exports.

As expected, major producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia warned during the conference that crude supply would outstrip demand next year and canvassed the need for producers to adopt measures to mitigate the likely negative impacts on their crude oil earnings.