MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. OPEC earlier suggested that non-OPEC countries can cut oil production by 500,000 barrels a day not by 880,000 barrels a day, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters commenting a statement made by his Azeri counterpart.

"Before that OPEC proposed not that figure but approximately 500 (thousands of barrels per day - TASS)," Novak said.

Earlier Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Natik Aliyev wrote in his article in the Baku newspaper Republic that Russia had agreed to cut daily production by 300,000 barrels. He also said that this "will not affect the price of oil." At the same time, any other country outside OPEC can compensate this volume, the minister said. He noted that OPEC expected the countries outsides the cartel to cut daily oil production from January 1, 2017 by 880,000 barrels a day for six months.

Earlier on Thursday Novak also said that oil production freeze for Russia is equivalent to a reduction of production by 200-300,000 barrels per day, as it deprives the company's ability to increase production in accordance with the plan for 2017.

According to the Energy Ministry, between November 1 and 23, average daily oil production in Russia was 11.2 mln barrels.

On September 28, at an informal meeting in Algiers, OPEC member-nations reached an agreement to limit the average daily oil production by 33 mln barrels. The Organization will discuss production limits of each member-nation at the next meeting on November 30 in Vienna.