The World's Oil Glut Is Much Worse Than It Looks - Bloomberg

The World's Oil Glut Is Much Worse Than It Looks - Bloomberg:

A meeting of ministers from OPEC states and their oil-producing allies will take place in Abu Dhabi this week. It will probably be a subdued affair. Oil prices remain stubbornly low despite big output cuts by the so-called OPEC+ group and geopolitical factors such as the U.S. sanctions on Iran.

The meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, a body set up by OPEC+ to oversee its production-cutting strategy, won’t reset the group’s approach but it might provide some clearer guidance on its goals. The ministers insist that they don’t have a target for how far they want the price of crude to rise, and say instead that their aim is to reduce excess stockpiles.

But for market-watchers it’s tough to even get a sense of how big that stockpile is, and hence when the output-cutting exercise may be seen to have done its job.