VIENNA (Sputnik) — The Monitoring Committee of the Vienna agreement, following Wednesday's ministerial meeting, recommended to extend the deal by another nine months, leaving the volume of reductions unchanged. Novak reported that the option of prolonging the Vienna agreement by yet another three months after a possible extension until April 1, 2018 was being discussed. The final decision is to be made at a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries Thursday.
"I think this is nonessential actually. Nine months is important for us. In any case, we will always have the opportunity to make a decision," Novak said, when asked about OPEC's intention to extend the agreement by 9 months without an additional option.
OPEC on November 30, 2016 agreed in Vienna to reduce its production by 1.2 million barrels per day from the October 2016 level. Eleven non-OPEC countries on December 10, 2016 agreed to cut their production by a total of 558,000 barrels per day, including Russia by 300,000 barrels per day. The agreement was concluded for the first half of 2017 with the possibility of extension.
