OPEC’s agreement on an new production target has been followed by a bout of renewed optimism about the rebalancing of the oil market. But there are so far few signs of imminent rebalancing in the structure of Brent futures prices for 2017. “Fundamentals are improving and the market is rebalancing,” Saudi Arabia’s energy minister told a conference in London on Oct. 19. “The recent OPEC accord in Algiers was designed to further reinforce the already improving fundamentals,” he explained (“Healthier oil market conditions at hand”, Energy Intelligence, Oct. 20). There are signs that stocks of crude and products have stabilized and even started to fall after rising since 2014 (“Asia oil markets are tightening as China cuts output, fuel stocks dwindle”, Reuters, Oct. 21).