OPEC Ministers Say Oil Market Moving in Right Direction

OPEC ministers say the oil market is fixing itself upwards and the prices are moving in the right direction, according to a report on Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-31/u-a-e-sees-oil-market-correcting-itself-ahead-of-opec-meeting "From the beginning of the year until now, the market has been correcting itself upward," U.A.E. Oil Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told reporters in Vienna on Tuesday. "The market will fix itself to a price that is fair to the consumers and to the producers." Forecasters including the International Energy Agency and Goldman Sachs say "the crude glut is finally dwindling as the Saudi approach of squeezing high-cost suppliers -- opposed by most OPEC members when it was unveiled in late 2014 -- finally pays off. The group is unlikely to change direction this week, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg." "I think the market trends are better now," Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria's minister of state for petroleum resources, told reporters in Vienna. While prices are moving "in the right direction, I think it needs more acceleration of the pace," he said. However, the report said there were still signs of division in the group, with Venezuelan Energy Minister Eulogio Del Pino attributed the price recovery to unexpected supply disruptions than a successful OPEC strategy. "If you take into account what happened in the last three or four months," there has been a "de facto" freeze, Del Pino told reporters in Vienna Wednesday. More than 3 million barrels of daily production are out of the market, he said. Bloomberg said, after two and a half years of oversupply, oil traders also see signs supply and demand are getting close to being in balance. The IEA expects oil demand to increase this year by 1.2 million barrels a day, and oil prices rose above $50 a barrel last week for the first time in six months. Goldman Sachs now projects oil prices could hover between $50 and $60 a barrel in the second half of the year.