BAKU, March 18 (Xinhua) -- OPEC and Non-OPEC countries held a ministerial panel here on Monday amid statements by senior officials that oil cuts will remain in place until June, the state-run news agency AZERTAC reported.
The 13th meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee is attended by high-level representatives from 14 member states of OPEC and non-OPEC countries, according to the report.
In his key remarks, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih highlighted weakness in the area of oil investments.
"Prior to the last downturn in 2014, global oil and gas investments were growing at a rapid pace of between five and fifteen percent per annum, depending on the year. They peaked at roughly 900 billion dollars in 2014, but continued to fall until 2016, dropping to as low as a little over 500 billion dollars," he said.
Al-Falih called the investment recovery quite modest, noting that this year's estimates hover around 535 billion dollars, or some 40 percent less than the peak.
"In other words, from 2016 to 2019, the industry invested only an additional 35 billion dollars per year for oil and gas combined," he said. "In the process, the industry cumulatively lost almost 1.7 trillion dollars in investments compared to 2014 levels."
On Sunday, Al-Falih said OPEC may need to extend oil cuts until the end of 2019 amid growing global inventories.
