"In July, we see that the supply is already lower than demand by 1 million barrels per day. This means that we have already entered the stage of reducing inventories," he said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
He also said that in July, Russia complied with the OPEC+ oil output cut deal by 97 percent and reached a 100-percent compliance in August.
"We are at a high level, in July we complied at 97 percent, for us it is a very high level. In August we reached a 100 percent level. Today we are fulfilling 100 percent of the obligations we took for August," Novak said.
"Of the 9.7 million barrels per day that were to be reduced under the OPEC+ agreement in July, the total reduction was 9.4 million barrels per day. This is a fairly large, unprecedented level of reduction, this has not happened yet," he added.
OPEC+ commitments are voluntary, but everyone understands that teamwork can only be done if all countries comply with their obligations, Novak said.
The next meeting of the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee has been set for September 17, while the Joint Technical Committee will convene a day earlier, OPEC said in a press release Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the OPEC+ ministers met to discuss the compliance with the agreed quotas of oil production cuts.
"The next meetings of the JTC and the JMMC are scheduled for 16 September and 17 September 2020, respectively," the organization said.
According to the press release, the OPEC-non-OPEC members "have reaffirmed their commitment in the [Declaration of Cooperation] to achieve full and timely conformity" with the target volumes of production cuts.
"The underperforming Members of the Committee reaffirmed their commitment to compensate for the shortfalls in May, June, and July 2020 by the end of September 2020," the press release read.