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Russia’s oil companies propose postponing extension of OPEC+ deal until March

The OPEC+ production reduction pact is valid until the end of March 2020

© Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. At a meeting at the Ministry of Energy on Thursday, representatives of the Russian oil industry proposed that the current quotas for reducing production within OPEC+ are maintained until March and the extension should be discussed afterwards, Vice President of Lukoil Ravil Maganov told reporters on Thursday.

"We all proposed that we stay in the deal with the same quotas, and at the end of the first quarter we will meet and discuss ... we have proposed it, I don’t know what the final decision will be, but I think it will be everyone’s opinion," Maganov said.

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Russia will continue to work with OPEC+ to stabilize oil market, says Putin

He added that the issue of recalculating quotas without taking into account gas condensate was raised at the meeting, but no decision has yet been made.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier that the agenda of the OPEC+ meeting in Vienna on December 5-6 is planned as usual, the ministers will discuss market forecasts and the implementation of the agreement, but the discussion of the current quota relevance in the agreement is not ruled out.

"The agenda is standard - we will have to monitor the situation on the market, the implementation of the agreement. We will talk about the future, about forecasts for the development of the market. Options for discussing one-time issues are not ruled out," Novak said, when answering a question on whether or not quotas will be discussed.

Earlier, a TASS source said that the Russian Ministry of Energy plans to raise the issue of recalculating quotas amid growing gas condensate production in Russia at the next OPEC+ meeting.

Accoridng to Novak, Russia reduced crude production by 211,000 barrels per day within the OPEC+ deal against the basis level in October. "Russia reduced crude production by 211,000 barrels per day within the OPEC+ deal in October against October 2018. Meanwhile, as of end-October reduction amounted to 298,000 barrels per day," he said. Russia’s quota within the agreement is 228,000 barrels per day, which brings Russia’s compliance to 92.5%.

The OPEC+ production reduction pact aimed at stabilizing crude prices is valid until the end of March 2020. In total, the countries participating in the agreement should reduce production by 1.2 mln barrels per day to the level of October 2018. Under the deal, OPEC and non-OPEC nations are obliged to cut their oil output by 812,000 and 383,000 barrels per day, respectively.

Russia exceeded its quota within the OPEC+ agreement in May-July as crude transit was suspended due to the contamination of oil in the Druzhba oil pipeline. In August, companies restored production as the system was cleaned, Novak said earlier.

At a meeting on December 5-6, 2019 in Vienna, OPEC+ countries will consider the issue of oil production levels after March 2020.

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