Fears of a global economic downturn are ‘exaggerated’ – Kuwaiti minister

Kuwait is “fully committed” to implementing an agreement between oil exporting countries to cut production in order to support crude prices, Oil minister Khaled al-Fadhel said on Monday.

He said his country has cut its own output by more than required by this agreement.

“The compliance of Kuwait was close to 160 per cent last July,” he was quoted as saying by the official news agency KUNA.

He said fears of a global economic downturn, which have weighed down on prices, were “exaggerated,” and global demand for crude should pick up in the second half, helping reduce the surplus in oil inventories gradually.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other non-OPEC producers, known as OPEC+, agreed to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from Jan. 1 for six months, a deal designed to stop inventories building up and prop up prices.