Kazakhstan fulfills its obligation under OPEC deal
By Kamila Aliyeva
Kazakhstan fulfills its obligations under OPEC agreement on oil production cuts, Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said addressing a government meeting, Kazinform reported.
“Kazakhstan is committed to its obligations. We, as promised, keep the production at the appropriate level. Our excess is insignificant, even within Kazakhstan. Last year, we extracted an average of 1.720 million barrels per day. Our obligations were 1.680 million barrels, roughly speaking. Approximately 35,000-40,000 barrels per day - this is completely miserable, this is within the margin of error,” he said.
He noted that only “ignorant, those not understanding and manipulating figures can say that Kazakhstan does not fulfill its obligations.”
Bozumbayev also announced the extension of the OPEC+ agreement, but with mitigating conditions.
“Kazakhstan will be committed and will continue to fulfill its obligations under the OPEC+ deal,” the minister added.
OPEC agreed on a total reduction in oil production by 1.8 million barrels per day at the end of 2016. Thanks to this, it was possible to stabilize world oil prices, which had been rapidly declining before.
In November 2016, the OPEC summit was held in Vienna, where OPEC members reached an agreement on reducing oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day. In December 2016 was a meeting of oil producers outside the OPEC. The meeting ended with signing an agreement to reduce oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 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.
In Kazakhstan, the volume of oil production in January-December 2017 amounted to 72.932 million tons, which is 11.2 percent more than in 2016, according to the statistics committee of the National Economy Ministry.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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