OPEC reaches consensus to extend output cut agreement
08:03, 11 May 2017
ASTANA. KAZINFORM Iraq's Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi advises that OPEC countries have arrived at a consensus and are set to extend the agreement to freeze production levels, Kommersant reports.
The minister said it would result in price stabilization and have a positive impact on Iraqi budget. He also confirmed that OPEC will discuss the subject of extending the agreement during a regular meeting in Vienna on May 25.
Since January oil exporters have started limiting production as agreed in early December 2016. At that time, for the first half of 2017, OPEC agreed to reduce its production by 1.2 million to 32.5 million barrels a day, while non-OPEC countries were to cut oil output to 558 thousand barrels per day including Russia 300 thousand.
Earlier, Khalid al-Falih Saudi energy minister said during his visit to Kuala Lumpur that he expected a global deal on cutting crude output to be extended possibly after 2017.