Most participants of the meeting of ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC oil producers, which took place in Kuwait City on Sunday, supported the extension of an agreement on oil output cut by six months but the final decision will be taken in May and will depend on the situation on the market.
The Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) includes ministers of three OPEC member states - Venezuela, Kuwait and Algeria - and two countries that not part of the cartel, namely Russia and Oman.
OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Ali Luaibi and UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed Faraj Mazrouei also attended the Sunday meeting. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih did not arrive in Kuwait but discussed key issues with the meeting participants over the phone.
"The JMMC requested that the JTC [Non-OPEC Technical Committee] with the OPEC Secretariat review the oil market conditions and revert to the JMMC in April 2017 regarding the extension of the voluntary production adjustments as stipulated in the Declaration of Cooperation, in order to ensure market stability," the JMMC press release on the outcomes of the meeting read.
It added that as of February 2017, the OPEC and participating non-OPEC countries achieved a 94-percent conformity level, which was an increase of 8 percentage points over the performance in January 2017.
The JMMC called on all countries, participating in the oil output cut agreement, to press toward a 100-percent conformity.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the question of the extension of the deal would be discussed during the JMMC meeting in May following the evaluation of the situation on the market.
Novak told Sputnik that Russia was pleased with outcome of the Sunday's monitoring committee meeting.
He said that Russia intended to further adhere to the agreement and had already decreased oil output by 185,000 barrels per day per day comparing to October 2016 figures.
The minister stressed that the the aim of the agreement was to jointly stabilize the situation on the market.
In the interview with Al Seyassah newspaper, the Russian energy minister said that Russia would decide on a possible extension of the oil output cut agreement on the basis of four factors: the situation on the market, the situation with commercial oil reserves, the supply and demand balance, and the effectiveness of the existing arrangement.
At the same time, Novak said that the decrease of world crude oil reserves was expected at the second quarter of 2017.
Such countries as Oman, Venezuela and Iraq expressed support for the extension of the oil output cut deal during the meeting in Kuwait.
In November 2016, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member states reached an accord to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day for the first half of 2017 to boost global oil prices.
The OPEC agreement was supported by 11 non-OPEC states, which had joined the deal by promising to reduce their combined oil output by 558,000 barrels per day. Russia pledged to cut production by 300,000 barrels daily.
SPUTNIK/MNA
