KUWAIT: October’s production levels will be the reference point for oil output cuts for most Opec and non-Opec producers that agreed on cuts earlier this month, the UAE’s energy minister said on Sunday.
September levels will be the reference point for a few of the producers, said Suhail Mohammad Al Mazroui, Minister of Energy and Industry at a news conference at the meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Companies in Kuwait.
Libya, Iran and Venezuela are exempt from the production cuts, he said, adding that he expected their production to fall rather than rise.
Al Mazroui said Opec and non-Opec producers aim to return the oil market balance to summer 2018 levels in the first quarter of 2019.
Shale oil producers were the first to suffer from the fall in oil prices he said, as shale oil production slowed.
If the agreed 1.2 million-barrel cut in oil production is not enough, Opec and non-Opec producers will hold an extraordinary meeting and do what is necessary to balance the market, Al Mazroui said.
Extending the agreement signed in early December on oil output cuts will not be a problem and producers will do as the market demands, Al Mazroui told a news conference at Opec in Kuwait.
— Reuters
