OPEC, non-OPEC oil output cuts positive

Energy ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC countries meeting in Vienna on Sunday (January 22) have struck a positive note regarding their agreement to cut oil output as a committee set to monitor compliance with the deal meets for the first time.

“I am satisfied and optimistic. I think, as I’ve said a number of times, the markets are on their way to rebalance, it’s just happening faster than it would have without the declaration on cooperation that we signed with non-OPEC countries,” Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said.

Compliance with the agreement, which calls for cuts to begin this month, had been “fantastic”, he said.

Kuwaiti oil minister Essam Al-Marzouq, who chairs the five-member compliance committee, said it would examine how to best monitor compliance and what level of compliance would be acceptable.

The other members of the committee represent Algeria, Venezuela, Russia and Oman.

A deal reached in December between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers marked the first such pact since 2001.

Under it, producers will lower output by nearly 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) aiming to ease a global glut that has weighed on oil prices for more than two years.

Some 1.5 million bpd in crude production had already been taken out of the market, Falih said last week.