The International Energy Agency is confident Saudi Arabia will do all it can to keep the oil market well supplied despite the recent attacks, but at the same time it remains prepared to take necessary action in the event supply gets tighter, Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, told S&P Global Platts Wednesday. “We have full trust in the Saudi authority,” Birol said in an interview on the sidelines of the hydrogen energy ministerial meeting in Tokyo. “They will do the best to supply oil to the markets as they have done before.”
“In case there are some issues that [there is] not enough oil… or if there is disruption in markets as ever the IEA is ready to take necessary steps,” Birol said. Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said September 17 that more than half of the 5.7 million b/d of output lost after attacks on two oil facilities on September 14 was back online. He also said exports in September would be unaffected because oil stockpiles are being used.
While multiple Saudi crude customers in South Korea, India and Japan claimed that their Saudi term crude supply remains safe, other refiners in Asia have said that some of their term barrels for lighter Saudi grades have been affected by the attacks.I think recent attacks in Saudi Arabia reminded us, the entire world, once again that the energy security is a real life issue,” Birol said. “It’s the issue we do not talk about 45 minutes, not for 45 months but for 45 years,” he said, referring to the establishment of the IEA in 1974.
At the end of July, IEA member states held 1.55 billion barrels of emergency stocks under government-controlled agencies, equaling 15 days’ of total world demand, alongside industry stocks in IEA countries that totaled 2.9 billion barrels.”Our current government and industry stocks are substantial,” Birol said. “Numbers that we are talking about in possible supply disruptions scenarios, they can be easily covered by the IEA public and commercial stocks.”
While the IEA is closely monitoring the current oil market, it is also stepping up its efforts to enhance its cooperation with its key associate member countries such as India, Birol said.
The IEA is “in close contact” with India about what they can do together as well as about how they can cooperate better in the case of supply disruption that could affect the Asian market, he said.