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Russia has no objections to inviting new members to OPEC monitoring committee

ISTANBUL, July 10. /TASS/. Russia’s Energy Ministry has no objections to inviting new members to the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee due on July 24 in Russia’s St. Petersburg, Minister Alexander Novak said Monday.

"We are open to (inviting) any participants," he said, adding that he plans to discuss the issue with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo later in the day.

Earlier The Wall Street Journal reported with reference to the cartel’s delegates that OPEC is considering putting a limit on how much oil members Nigeria and Libya can pump as "surging production from those countries is complicating the cartel’s plans to influence crude prices." Libya’s crude-oil output has surged to over 1 mln barrels per day, up from 400,000 in October, while Nigeria’s output has risen to 1.6 mln barrels per day, up 200,000 barrels per day since October, the newspaper wrote.

The two countries (both are OPEC members) have been exempted from the obligation to cut crude production because their industries had been crippled by civil unrest. According to the publication, Nigeria and Libya have been invited to the meeting of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee on July 24 in St. Petersburg.

In December 2016, OPEC and 11 countries outside the cartel agreed to withdraw 1.8 million barrels per day from the oil market in the first half of 2017. The goal of the alliance is to reduce global oil reserves to an average level of five years. On May 25, OPEC and non-OPEC countries agreed in Vienna to extend the existing level of oil production cut until April 2018.