The OPEC deal is closer than ever to meeting its market rebalancing goals, with OECD inventories now just 74 million barrels above the five-year average recorded in January 2017, according to a report by Reuters. When the output reduction deal went into effect at the beginning of last year, inventories were 340 million barrels above the benchmark figure, according to Ayed Al Qahtani, who heads OPEC’s research group. The official made the remarks during the ongoing International Petroleum Week proceedings in London. “This conformity level has been very successful in withdrawing the overhang,” Al Qahtani told the audience. OPEC members have been reducing output by 1.2 million barrels per day to push prices upwards. Markets have been stubbornly bearish since the September 2014 and January 2016 crashes, but the past year has seen some upward movement in the Brent barrel. There are also roughly a dozen other non-OPEC nations […]