Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Thursday that the global oil surplus stood at 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) and that the market might not balance out until the first half of 2017. A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart last month after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in, ruining any chance of sealing what would have been the first such cooperation plan in 15 years. “This (the forecast that the market won’t balance until the first half of 2017) is an optimistic forecast as oversupply persists and the decline in production volumes is slower than analysts expected,” he said. Novak had previously said the Doha deal would have sped up the process of rebalancing the oil market by three to […]