ABU DHABI – Saudi Arabia’s new energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz binSalman, said Monday that oil production cuts would benefit all exportingnations, in an indication he will support further reductions to address anoversupplied market and sagging prices.

In his first comments since being appointed by his father King Salman onSunday, the minister signalled no major change in approach in Saudi Arabia,the de facto OPEC leader which pumps about a third of the cartel’s oil.

“The pillars of our oil policy are pre-determined and will not change,” hetold Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya.

The prince was in Abu Dhabi to attend the World Energy Congress, followedby a meeting on Thursday of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee(JMMC) of the OPEC+ alliance for a supply cut deal reached last year.

The ministers will consider fresh reductions, even though analysts aredoubtful such a move would succeed in bolstering crude prices which havebeen badly dented by the US-China trade war.

Crude prices are moving around levels of $60 a barrel, in contrast withmore than $75 a year ago, but were given a boost Monday by the Saudiofficial’s comments, with West Texas Intermediate oil for October deliveryadvancing 53 cents to $57.05 a barrel.

– Outlook cloudy –

Prince Abdulaziz said that the trade war, which has triggered fears of aglobal recession, has cast a “fog” over the oil market.

However, he appeared to swing his support behind further curbs to rebalancethe crude market.

“Cutting output will benefit all members of OPEC,” he told Al-Arabiya onthe sidelines of the conference, but added to reporters later that “itwould be wrong” for him to pre-empt the decision of the alliance.

The appointment of Prince Abdulaziz, half-brother to de facto ruler CrownPrince Mohammed bin Salman, marks the first time a royal family member hasbeen put in charge of the all-important energy ministry.

He replaces veteran official Khalid al-Falih as the world’s top crudeexporter accelerates preparations for a much-anticipated stock listing ofstate-owned oil giant Aramco, expected to be the world’s biggest.

“Prince Abdulaziz is very experienced and has served in the energy industryfor decades,” Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS Group AG in Zurich, toldBloomberg News.

“His comments today suggest we shouldn’t expect any major policy changesfrom the kingdom, which still wants to see oil inventories falling.”

– Stubborn slide –

The OPEC petroleum exporters’ cartel and key independent producers want tohalt a slide in prices that has persisted despite previous output cuts andUS sanctions that have squeezed supply from Iran and Venezuela.

Analysts say the JMMC monitoring body has limited options when it meets inAbu Dhabi to formulate recommendations ahead of an OPEC+ ministerialmeeting in Vienna in December.

UAE Energy Minister Suheil al-Mazrouei said Sunday the group would do”whatever necessary” to rebalance the crude market, but admitted the issuewas not entirely in the hands of the world’s top producers.

The market is no longer governed by supply and demand but is beinginfluenced more by US-China trade tensions and geopolitical factors, hesaid.

Analysts say that while cuts could help prices, they could also meanproducers lose further market share.

Prince Abdulaziz also alluded to the sense that Saudi Arabia is shoulderingthe burden of production cuts, while other nations — notably Nigeria andIraq — are flouting the limitations.

Speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi, he said that one or two countries “needto be more committed” in order to bring benefits to the entire industry.

The 25-nation OPEC+ group, dominated by the cartel’s kingpin Saudi Arabiaand non-OPEC production giant Russia, agreed to reduce output in December2018.

That came as a faltering global economy and a boom in US shale oilthreatened to create a global glut in supply.

Previous supply cuts have mostly succeeded in bolstering prices.

But this time, the market has continued to slide — even after OPEC+ agreedin June to extend by nine months an earlier deal slashing output by 1.2million barrels per day (bpd).

The new factor is the trade dispute between the US and China, whosetit-for-tat tariffs have created fears of a global recession that willundermine demand for oil. -APP/AFP