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OPEC ministers agree to extend oil production cut deal until end of 2018

Libya and Nigeria have also agreed to limit their oil production

© AP Photo/Hasan Jamali

VIENNA, November 30. /TASS/. OPEC ministers agreed at the meeting on November 30 to extend the oil production reduction agreement until the end of 2018, Oil and Gas Minister of Oman Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy told TASS.

"Yes," he said, answering the TASS question.

The talks of OPEC ministers lasted six hours. Now the ministers of non-OPEC countries participating in the oil production cut agreement joined the discussion on the extension of the deal. Also seven new countries were invited to take part in the talks.

Libya, Nigeria agree to limit their oil output

Libya and Nigeria have agreed to limit their oil production to 2.8 million barrels per day in 2018, Iran’s Oil Minister, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told journalists.

"They (Libya and Nigeria - TASS) agreed on less than 2.8 million barrels in 2018," the minister replied to the question whether the restriction of production for these countries was discussed.

Read also

OPEC+ suggests limiting oil production of Libya, Nigeria — Omani oil minister

The Iranian minister also noted that the OPEC countries did not discuss changes of the terms of the agreement on the reduction of oil production at their meeting on Thursday.

"We did not discuss it," he said.

Nigeria, Libya and Iran, which are members of OPEC, did not participate in the agreement on limiting oil production and continued to boost it since the beginning of 2017.

OPEC planned to suggest that Nigeria should limit production to 1.8 million barrels per day, and Libya - to 1 million barrels per day.

On Thursday, Vienna hosted a meeting of OPEC ministers and the ministers of non-OPEC countries participating in the oil production cut deal. In the first half of the day, only the ministers of the OPEC countries met.

In late 2016, OPEC member-states and 11 independent oil-exporting countries entered into an agreement to reduce oil production. According to that agreement, during the first half of 2017 the participants were to withdraw 1.8 million barrels per day from the oil market in comparison with the level of October 2016.

In May 2017, at the meeting in Vienna, the countries extended the agreement until April 2018, maintaining the previous quotas for all participants. The purpose of the agreement is to reduce global oil reserves to the average level of the last five years.

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