SOCHI, October 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Energy Ministry expects the agreement on oil production cap between OPEC and non-OPEC nations to bring the crude oil market into balance in the first half of 2018, the Minister Alexander Novak said Wednesday.

"Hopefully the market will get into balance by the middle of next year or in the first quarter of next year if the trend of falling [oil] supply persists," he said, adding that this will "bring the demand/supply into balance."

According to Novak, the agreement has helped reduce excessive oil supplies two-fold versus the average five-year level.

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.