OPEC+ will ensure oil prices do not plunge again: Mohammad Barkindo

"We have to be realistic that this recovery is not picking up pace at the rate that we expected earlier in the year," he said. "Demand itself is still looking anaemic."

The OPEC+ alliance will ensure oil prices do not plunge steeply again when it meets to set policy at the end of November, OPEC’s Secretary General said on Thursday, adding that demand has been recovering more slowly than expected.

“I want to assure you that the OPEC, non-OPEC partnership will continue to do what it knows best, by ensuring that we don’t relapse into this almost historic plunge that we saw,” Mohammad Barkindo said.

Barkindo was answering a question at the Energy Intelligence Forum on whether there was room for a planned increase in oil output from January by OPEC+, a grouping