OPEC Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais was responding to comments from IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol in aTV interview on Wednesday (Birol cautioned OPEC about boosting oil prices).
al-Ghais:
- “The IEA knows very well that there are a confluence of factors that impact markets. The knock-on effects of COVID-19, monetary policies, stock movements, algorithm trading, commodity trading advisors and SPR releases (coordinated or uncoordinated), geopolitics, to name a few,”
- the International Energy Agency should be “very careful” about undermining industry investments
- “If anything will lead to future volatility (in oil prices) it is the IEA’s repeated calls to stop investing in oil, knowing that all data-driven outlooks envisage the need for more of this precious commodity to fuel global economic growth and prosperity in the decades to come, especially in the developing world.”
