Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) on Monday said it would cut its October 2017 crude supplies by 10 per cent across its three export grades — Murban, Das and Upper Zakum — to meet commitments under an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) deal to curb output, WAM reported.
The development comes as Opec is trying to improve compliance among its members to an agreement reached between Opec and non-Opec oil producers last year.
“Adnoc has announced monthly nomination cuts throughout 2017 in support of the UAE’s Opec commitment to reduce its oil production,” UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazroui tweeted on Monday.
Thirteen Opec members and eleven non-Opec members agreed to cut production by about 1.8 million barrels a day (mbd) to prop up oil prices last year.
The agreement came into effect from January 1 for a period of six months and was further extended until March 2018. Libya and Nigeria, however, are exempt from the deal.
At a meeting in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, the UAE, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Malaysia expressed their willingness to fully comply with the production cut agreement.
The Joint Opec-Non-Opec Technical Committee (JTC) meeting in Abu Dhabi was called to further improve conformity levels with the deal to cut oil production with a view to accelerating the rebalancing of global oil markets.
Oil prices have risen by more than 10 per cent since the deal came into force on January 1 this year.
Brent, the international benchmark, is currently trading at around $52 (Dh191) per barrel, supported by output disruptions in the US as well as in Libya.
The UAE’s oil production in July was about 2.9 million bpd in July, according to an Opec monthly report. The oil curbs deal has brought a sense of order into the market, experts said. They, however, added that the persistent glut is undermining the group’s efforts to rebalance oil markets.
“Had there not been such a measure, we could have seen the haphazard production leading to a massive glut and plunging the commodity below $30 [per barrel],” Mihir Kapadia, CEO and founder of Sun Global Investments in London, told Gulf News last week.
