DOHA: Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said on Monday that he does not expect pressure on oil prices after OPEC's decision on Friday not to impose a ceiling on crude output and keep production at high levels.
"OPEC's decision was expected by the market," he told reporters in Qatar.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) failed to agree on a new output quota on Friday, allowing member
countries to continue pumping more than 31 million barrels per day of oil, further swelling a glut that has lowered prices.
"We don't anticipate a recovery in 2016 (for oil prices) because in 2016 the growth in capacity will be larger than the
growth in demand... I am not very optimistic for 2016," he added.
However, he said there should be a reduction in supply from non-OPEC producers in 2016. "Non-OPEC supply will contract... by mid-2016 we should see contraction in U.S production according to what we understand," he said.
Pouyanne said Total was one of the companies invited by Qatar to bid for its Al Shaheen oil field.
Reuters
