Saudi energy minister hopes to balance oil market before 2020

Saudi Arabia is working to balance global oil markets this year, the country’s energy minister said on Saturday when asked if there’s an impending surplus, a foreign media outlet reported.

The comments come a day after the International Energy Agency forecast global supplies will expand far more than demand next year, putting further pressure on OPEC. Saudi Arabia and its allies, including Russia, are expected to extend output cuts into the second half of this year, despite growing tension within the group and gridlock over its next meeting date.

“I hope that we will balance the market before next year, we are working on it,” Khalid Al Falih told reporters on the sidelines of a G20 ministerial meeting on energy and the environment in Karuizawa, Japan, on Saturday.

Production cuts in the first half of the year from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners have helped put a floor under prices amid surging US production. Al Falih didn’t respond to a question about the date of the next Opec meeting and said “there is plenty of supply” when asked his current assessment of crude markets.