While myriad risks remain, as discussed later in this article, the global vaccination drive and consequent economic reopening are buoying demand. In another Interview, a senior executive from CMarkits Ltd posited that pre-crisis levels could be reached by mid-2022, but “that assumes that the vaccination rate is much faster than the rate at which the virus changes from one form to another, or, even if it changes, then we don’t have a new variant that is resistant to the available vaccines now.”
OPEC+ is one force supporting prices. In late July, responding to increased prices in the face of constrained supplies, the group agreed to boost oil supplies by 400,000 b/d from August to December. The IEA executive is “not surprised” by their actions. Indeed, “it is that discipline which has helped bring the market back towards rebalancing”. The CMarkits executive echoed this sentiment, saying that OPEC+ “has been the largest or one of the largest supporters to the current price environment”.
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