Despite the steady decline in the price of oil since the OPEC members and participating non-OPEC members ratified an extension of the OPEC deal for nine months in May to reduce global supply by 1.76 million barrels per day, the OPEC members are not considering deeper cuts, according to the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates. This kills the hope that OPEC might once again come to the rescue as the price dipped more than 18 percent for five consecutive weeks before staging a bounce back this week. The North American benchmark WTI is currently trading at 445.1 per barrel and the North Sea benchmark is trading at $2.7 per barrel premium to WTI. The price is still down more than 13 percent from the post-agreement high.

United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said on the sidelines of International Energy Agency’s conferee in Paris that OPEC was not talking about steeper cuts, “I think OPEC countries and non-OPEC countries who joined us have done their part. We are looking at the others to do their part as well. We are not worried about the market recovery”. The comments from one of the most influential OPEC members nullifies comments made by Saudi oil minister Khalid Al-Falih and Iran’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh, who suggested that nothing is off the table and OPEC is discussing on deeper cuts.