RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman believes it would be premature to talk about potential overheating in the global oil market, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

“There will always be a good amount of supply to meet demand, but we’ll have to see demand before you see supply,” the prince said at the St. Petersburg economic forum in Russia.

Earlier this week, the OPEC+ alliance of oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia kept supply on an upward track.

The meeting of OPEC+ ministers — one of the shortest on record at 30 minutes — saw an agreement reached to stick to plans to increase oil supply by more than 2 million barrels a day by the end of July, noting “ongoing improvement in oil demand as economic recovery continued in most parts of the world as vaccination programs accelerated.” Prince Abdulaziz said there had been “clear signs of improvement” and that major economies including the US and China were consuming more oil.

However, he added there were “still clouds on the horizon,” and urged OPEC+ to continue to monitor the situation on a monthly basis.

There was little change in oil prices on Thursday, following a surge earlier in the week after the OPEC+ meeting. Brent Crude futures were up 16 cents (0.22 percent) at $71.51 a barrel by 12:44 GMT after touching their highest since September 2019 at $71.99. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 14 cents (0.20 percent) to $68.97.

“The US driving season is a period that sees higher than normal fuel consumption. UK traffic is now sitting above pre-pandemic levels,” CBA commodities analyst Vivek Dhar said in a note, Reuters reported. “We continue to see oil-demand recovery led by the US, Europe and China.”

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