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23 Jun 2018, 09:43

Russia welcomes OPEC decision to increase oil production within OPEC+

The decision is in line with the proposals that were worked out by the monitoring committee, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said
Minister of Energy of Russia Alexander Novak Alexander Shchebak/TASS
Minister of Energy of Russia Alexander Novak
© Alexander Shchebak/TASS

VIENNA, June 23. /TASS/. Russia welcomes OPEC's decision to increase oil production by 1 mln barrels per day withing the OPEC+ deal, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak told reporters.

"This decision is in line with the proposals that were worked out by the monitoring committee, which corresponds to today's ideas about what needs to be done on the market. I think that at this stage 1 mln barrels is reasonable," he said.

He noted that many market participants agree with increasing oil production and within the framework of the forthcoming meeting of OPEC+ there will be many willing to comment on the recommendation of the monitoring committee to increase oil production by 1 mln barrels per day in the framework of the OPEC + agreement.

"We have a lot of countries, there are many who want to speak, I think," the Minister said.

The OPEC ministers at a meeting on Friday decided to increase oil production within the OPEC+ deal by 1 mln barrels per day.

On Saturday, June 23, the final decision will be made at a meeting of OPEC+, which includes a number of oil-exporting countries, including Russia.

The OPEC+ agreement, which unites 24 countries, has been in effect since the beginning of 2017. Over the past few months, the plan has been overfulfilled, including through declining production in Venezuela and a number of African countries. As of May of this year, the level of performance has reached 150%, which means that the deal participants reduced production by 2.7 mln barrels per day instead of the expected 1.8 mln barrels against the level of October 2016.

Against the backdrop of over-fulfillment of the agreement, the ministers of the OPEC + countries started talking about the need to soften quotas and gradually restore production from the second half of 2018.

The meeting of the ministerial monitoring committee of OPEC+, which usually proceeds from the recommendations and future scenarios of the technical committee, was held on June 21 in Vienna. The ministerial monitoring committee, which includes six countries - Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Oman and Algeria, in turn, makes recommendations to the OPEC+ meeting in large numbers, which is held on June 22-23.