Global oil markets are sufficiently supplied, with increased production from North Dakota and Saudi Arabia making up for depressed Iranian exports, Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.
Declining global demand is also contributing to the supply situation, she added, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to discuss her agency's recently released World Energy Outlook.
"All together at this moment, the oil market is sufficiently supplied," she said. "There is no complacency, and we have to be vigilant about it."
But she warned traders against bidding up the price of oil in anticipation of a tightening of supplies, noting that IEA members maintain ample emergency stocks that could be released to soften any impacts of supply disruptions.
"We can only use them if there is a real need, but that has to be something in the back of the mind of traders," she said, adding: "The stocks are there."
