Kuwait Says Oil Supply-Cuts Deal Is ‘Working Well’

  • U.S. stockpiles seen falling again: Kuwait OPEC governor
  • Concerns about higher output in Libya, Nigeria ‘not justified’

An oil refinery south of Kuwait City.

Photographer: Vasser Al-Zayat/AFP via Getty Images
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Crude oil inventories will decline at a faster pace worldwide in the second half of the year as demand increases and OPEC members comply better with a global agreement to cut output, Kuwait’s OPEC Governor Haitham al-Ghais said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers including Russia agreed in May to extend their supply-cuts deal through March 2018 because stockpiles hadn’t fallen to their five-year historical average -- the goal of the agreement. Yet for the past two weeks, U.S. crude inventories have declined, exceeding analyst expectations.