Russia's Novak Not Ruling Out Other OPEC+ States Joining Additional Cuts in Oil Production
© Sputnik / Maxim Bogodvid
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Other OPEC+ member states may later join additional cuts in oil production announced by some members of the group on April 2, if they deem it necessary for the market, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday.
"Yes. Since nine countries, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, have announced voluntary cuts to date, and — as you know, we have 23 countries in OPEC + — in principle, today we talked about the fact that other countries can also join and announce some additional cuts of their own, if they deem it necessary in order to stabilize the market," Novak told reporters.
According to Novak, the decision of the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) to approve the voluntary reduction of the oil production by several member states means that this as an important step.
"I would especially like to note that this is an additional reduction, a voluntary one. Not within the OPEC+ framework. And this is in addition to the measures that were taken in October last year with a reduction of two million barrels per day until the end of 2023. These decisions were taken into account. And, in principle, they were approved today at the JMMC as very important and necessary measures at the moment in order to stabilize the situation on the market," Novak said.
"The volume of world oil reserves is quite low — 87 million barrels below the five-year average. But nevertheless, we see that there has been growth in recent months, and this means that we are still seeing an excess of oil on the market today," Novak added.
13 February 2023, 13:50 GMT
The OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee reaffirmed on Monday its commitment to the current terms of the deal and indicated that an additional voluntary reduction in the production of a number of alliance countries together with Russia will amount to 1.66 million barrels per day by the end of 2023, according to the alliance's communique.
On Sunday, Alexander Novak said that Russia will extend voluntary oil production cuts of 500,000 barrels per day until the end of 2023. Later in the day, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Oman, and Gabon also announced voluntary output cuts starting May until the end of 2023.
On Sunday, Alexander Novak said that Russia will extend voluntary oil production cuts of 500,000 barrels per day until the end of 2023. Later in the day, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Oman, and Gabon also announced voluntary output cuts starting May until the end of 2023.
The production adjustments, following the announcement of several other OPEC+ states to voluntarily cut oil output, will be made at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting.
