TOKYO, December 16. /TASS/. Representatives of 12 oil companies will form a working group to monitor implementation of agreements on oil production reduction in the first half of 2017, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.

"All 12 will be in the group, everyone who was at the meeting (at the Energy Ministry)," he said.

Novak reminded that at the meeting all the companies had agreed to cut their oil production.

"All the companies are ready to cut production," he said adding that this also concerns Rosneft.

On December 10, OPEC and non-OPEC countries signed the agreement on joint reduction of oil output at a meeting in Vienna. Also, 11 countries will join the announced cut by OPEC members of 1.164 mln barrels per day in the first half of next year, and reduce production by another 558,000 barrels per day. Thus, the total crude oil production cut will amount to 1.7-1.8 mln barrels per day.

Russia plans to cut its oil production by 300,000 barrels per day in the first half of next year.

Novak said earlier that the companies which account for 90% of oil production in Russia had confirmed their readiness to voluntarily cut their output in the first half of 2017 in proportion to their shares as compared to October 2016. The monitoring of oil production cut will be conducted twice a month. According to the minister, the cut will be in proportion to the volume of production of the companies - "terms are equal for everyone". By the end of April Russia plans to enter the target of oil production cut of 300,000 barrels daily.