Level of implementation of OPEC+ deal is breaking records
By Sara Israfilbayova
The level of implementation of the agreement to limit oil production by OPEC and non-OPEC countries in March was a record.
Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid A. Al-Falih stressed that however, the task of the parties to the deal is to further reduce oil production.
He went on to say that it is necessary to remove even more surpluses of oil from the market.
Meanwhile, Russian energy Minister Alexander Novak said that OPEC+ may consider lowering quotas to reduce oil production in June, according to TASS.
"We will see for two months how the situation develops, and in June, when we meet (on June 22 in Vienna), we will evaluate it. The agreement is in force until the end of the year, and in June we can consider the issue of reducing the quotas during this time. There are currently no solutions," he said.
The Minister added that he expects that surplus of oil reserves will disappear from the market in the coming months, he told reporters on Friday.
"We are definitely going to extend the cooperation between the OPEC and non-OPEC countries, and the format - a deal or a different format, we will discuss at the June meeting," Novak said. "We are determined to continue cooperation, this could be monitoring the situation in the format of meetings twice a year," he added.
At the same time, surplus of oil reserves decreased to 12 mln barrels, Novak told reporters. "At the end of March the surplus amounted to 12 mln barrels," he said. "In three months, the decline was almost 90 mln barrels, which is a very good indicator," the minister added.
OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached an agreement in December 2016 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices. OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1.
Non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 1, 2017.
OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.
The agreement on the reduction of oil production between 24 countries has been in effect since January 2017 and has already been extended twice. According to the terms, the participants should reduce production by 1.8 mln barrels per day (against October 2016, taken as the base level). Currently the agreement is valid until the end of 2018.
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