OPEC Wants Non-Members to Cut Oil Output by 500,000Bpd

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has offered non-member countries to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday.

"OPEC countries offered… approximately 500,000," Novak told reporters, noting that he had not heard of the reported 800,000 barrels per day figure.

Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said in his article published in a local newspaper earlier in the day that the OPEC had proposed non-cartel states to cut oil production by 880,000 barrels per day starting from January 1, 2017.

In September, the OPEC club of the world’s major oil producers reached a preliminary agreement in Algeria to set the oil output ceiling at 32.5-33 million barrels a day for the cartel. The OPEC countries have yet to finalize the deal at the November 30 meeting in Vienna with non-OPEC states, including Russia, open to capping the output.

Earlier in November, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ready to freeze oil output at the current level without hurting its economy.

Oil market turbulence caused oil prices to plunge from $115 per barrel in June 2014 to less than $30 per barrel in January 2016, causing hardship for oil exporters and placing a number of global oil producers at risk of bankruptcy. Prices have partially and are currently at around $45-50 per barrel.