MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. The world oil market is currently balanced thanks to the decision of OPEC+ to reduce oil production by 2 million barrels per day starting from November, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"Today, in my opinion, the market is balanced thanks to the fact that OPEC + decided to reduce [production] by 2 million barrels per day from November to the end of this year and for the whole of next year," he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the OPEC+ decision made it possible to balance the market during the winter drop in oil demand and the reduction in demand due to the consequences of the coronavirus, especially in China. "Today, there are many uncertainties caused by inflationary processes, the increase in rates of the national central banks. Therefore, we have been monitoring [the situation] very carefully as part of OPEC+ [meetings] during the year. We met every month. Now our meetings have become less frequent, once every 2 months. We keep our finger on the pulse " Novak added.

According to him, over the six years of its existence, the OPEC+ deal has shown a very good example of the collective interaction of 23 countries, which helped smooth out the negative aspects in the oil market.

"And there have been enough of them during this time. We believe that we are doing this not only in the interests of producers, but also in the interests of consumers in order to ensure a stable situation on the market," the Deputy Prime Minister concluded.