Falih, a Saudi, tells Trump: "We are doing things smoothly": CNBC By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Wednesday that OPEC and its partners are "taking easy steps" in response to a tweet by US President Donald Trump asking oil producers to relax their efforts to raise oil prices.

"We are going slowly, the 25 countries are taking a very slow and measured approach, as evidenced in the second half of last year, we are primarily interested in market stability," Falih told Riyadh. when he was asked to comment on Trump's comments. tweet this week, reported the CNBC television channel.

"We increased our production significantly (last year) in anticipation of a potential drop in supply that did not materialize. As a result, inventories rose in arrow and so we have corrected the evolution in a gradual and measured way in order to bring the inventory back to a reasonable level, "Falih said. adding that US production continues to grow.

Trump, in the latest in a series of tweets on oil prices since April 2018, wrote on Monday: "Oil prices are getting too high.OECD, relax and let yourself go.The world can not not take a price hike – fragile! "

After the tweet, oil prices recorded their largest daily percentage drop this year, down 3.5% on Monday. Brent rose slightly Wednesday. [O/R]

The OPEC + alliance will meet in April to decide on its production policy and will meet again in June.

According to Falih, the current analysis indicates that OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC +, may need to extend their agreement to limit production until the end of the year. the end of 2019.

"We are only in February, so it is difficult for me to predict where we will be in June when the current interim agreement will be exhausted," said Falih.

"All the prospects I have seen tell us that we will have to continue to moderate our production in the second half of this year, but we never know," he added.

"These forecasts are based on certain assumptions regarding the continued supply of countries such as Libya, Venezuela and Iran, and there is great uncertainty and lack of transparency regarding the barrels from these countries. country."

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other non-OPEC producers agreed in December to reduce the supply of 1.2 million barrels per day to count January 1st for a period of six months.

Falih also said that OPEC + was "on the way" with the implementation of supply cuts, and that the oil market was reacting "gradually but surely".

"We just need to give ourselves time, we will see demand increase sharply from the second quarter, we will see increased compliance and compliance from member countries, and inventories will react in a timely fashion," he said. he declares.

"I think the market will be assured that we are determined to balance the market, as we have always said."

On Tuesday, a Gulf OPEC source told Reuters that OPEC and its allies would abide by their oil supply cut deal, calling for greater membership and likely producers to continue their production cuts until the end of the year.