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Participants of Vienna meeting to discuss extension of OPEC deal

Representatives of OPEC and non-OPEC nations will discuss the extension of the agreement on oil production cut for six and nine months with the current quota at the meeting in Vienna on May 25

VIENNA, May 23. /TASS/. Representatives of OPEC and non-OPEC nations will discuss the extension of the agreement on oil production cut for six and nine months with the current quota at the meeting in Vienna on May 25, Ecuadorean Oil Minister Carlos Perez said Tuesday.

"Both proposals are on the table at the moment, six and nine months. I think that the majority is supporting nine months," he said.

When asked whether the participants plan to negotiate an increase in quotas, the minister said: "Not at this point I think."

Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Boutarfa also said on Tuesday that OPEC was discussing a nine-month extension to the agreement. "Right now we are talking about nine months," he said.

OPEC, Russia and a number of non-OPEC oil-producing countries will discuss the extension of the agreement on reduction of oil output for another nine months at a meeting in Vienna on May 25. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said earlier that all participants of the deal have already given a preliminary consent to the extension of the production cut until end-March 2018.

In early December 2016, OPEC countries and eleven non-OPEC nations agreed to slash the total oil production by 1.8 mln barrels per day in the first half of this year in order to cut global oil stocks to the latest five-year average.