The decision of Saudi Arabia to further reduce oil production in February and March within the framework of the OPEC+ deal is a New Year present for the world oil market, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at a press conference following a meeting of OPEC+ countries.
"Only one person knew about it [the decision on additional reduction of oil production], apparently it was him [Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman]. So - this is a New Year's present for the oil market, which is overcrowded today, in order to reduce the remaining [oil reserves] at a faster pace," Novak said.
"Of course, we believe that Saudi Arabia is contributing in a big, significant way to the situation of restoring normal levels of reserves in the world markets," he added.
The Deputy Prime Minister also said that the November 2020 OPEC+ oil production cut deal was more than 100 percent implemented.
"We summed up the results of the implementation of the agreement for the previous period, which is November. The level was very high - more than 100%," Novak said.
He noted that the OPEC+ countries are demonstrating their commitment to implement the decisions made.
At a meeting on January 5, the OPEC + countries have agreed that Russia and Kazakhstan in February and March will be able to increase oil production by 75 thousand b/d per month. At the same time, the production of all other OPEC+ members remained unchanged. Total OPEC+ production cuts will be 7.125 mln b/d in February and 7.05 mln b/d in March.
In addition, Saudi Arabia will voluntarily reduce oil production by 1mln b/d in February and March, while other members of the alliance will cut production by another 425 thousand b/d.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from TASS