OPEC has replaced the EIA and Rystad with Kpler, OilX, and ESAI to monitor its oil production levels, citing no specific reason for the change, reports Malcolm Moore of the Financial Times. This move comes despite warming ties between the US and Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s dominant member, and follows OPEC’s 2022 removal of the IEA over differing views on the energy transition. Moore writes:
Opec will stop using the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) to independently monitor its members’ production levels, the oil cartel said on Monday.
The producer body said it had dropped the EIA and Rystad, an energy consultancy, from its group of monitors and replaced them with data companies Kpler, OilX and ESAI, without giving a reason for the changes. Five other companies assessing Opec’s output are likely to remain the same, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. […]
The new president has already called for the cartel to increase oil production to help bring down prices, but the group said on Monday that it would continue to hold output at current levels. […]
“Rystad Energy values our long-standing commercial relationship with Opec and understands that for this specific aspect of our engagement it is common to engage different market intelligence providers,” said a spokesperson for Rystad Energy.
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