BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 24. OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais has defended the reliability of Gulf oil producers after comments by International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol suggesting they need to "regain their reputation as reliable exporters."
The remarks were made in an opinion article by Al Ghais published on OPEC's official website.
Al Ghais criticized Birol's assessment, arguing that it overlooks the long-term record of Gulf producers and reduces decades of reliable energy supplies to the impact of a single ongoing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. "To suggest that their record has been fundamentally undermined by one crisis, which is still ongoing, is to pass judgement on long-term performance based on short-term turmoil," Al Ghais wrote.
According to the OPEC chief, Gulf producers have continued supplying crude oil and petroleum products through multiple regional and global crises over several decades while making substantial investments in upstream production, refining capacity, export terminals, pipelines and storage infrastructure.
He also noted that producers have maintained spare production capacity at their own expense to help stabilize global markets during periods of disruption. Al Ghais stressed that the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz is the result of a military conflict affecting a key maritime route rather than a failure by producers to meet their contractual obligations. "It is a systems-level vulnerability, not evidence that producers have failed to honour contracts," he said.
The OPEC secretary general also argued that international organizations should promote dialogue between producers and consumers rather than question the credibility of oil-exporting countries. "International and intergovernmental organizations should be a bridge between producers and consumers, providing shared reference points and analysis," Al Ghais noted.
He added that questioning the reliability of Gulf producers during an ongoing crisis could undermine confidence and negatively affect future investment in the energy sector. "The Strait remains important, and no-one should question the reliability of Gulf producers. In fact, the IEA should view them as active partners in seeking a secure resolution, not parties who need to 'repair trust'," Al Ghais concluded.
