Global oil inventories will start to fall by the second quarter of the year, and crude-producing countries will decide in May whether to extend their collective output cuts beyond the first half, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said. “We have our target in accelerating those draw-downs to bring them closer to the five-year level — that is our target,” Barkindo told reporters Thursday at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries isn’t targeting a specific price for crude, he said. Global macroeconomic numbers have responded “positively” to the agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to pare output in a drive to end a worldwide supply glut, Barkindo said. OPEC’s Nov. 30 decision reversed the group’s policy of pumping without limits, and other major producers including Russia have promised cuts of their own in a joint effort to support prices. Benchmark Brent crude was 37 […]