Iraq has pledged to fully comply with oil cut deal, OPEC chief says

Iraq has assured OPEC it will fully comply with an agreement to cut oil supply in order to bolster crude prices, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said on Sunday.

Compliance with the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the end of last year to cut supply is “encouraging”, Barkindo told an energy conference in Baghdad.

General compliance with supply cuts by the oil producers was 86 percent in January and 94 percent in February, he said.

Read: Oil producing countries set to extend oil output cut by 6 months

“The focus is now to rebalance the market,” he added.

OPEC ministers will meet in May to decide whether or not to extend the oil supply curbs beyond June.

Barkindo described as “very constructive” meetings he had on Saturday with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi leaders in Baghdad. He saluted Iraq’s “flexibility” in the talks that helped bring about an agreement between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-member oil producers.

Iraq is OPEC’s second-largest producer, after Saudi Arabia. Previously, Iraq planned to increase its oil output capacity to 5 million barrels per day before the end of the year, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Sunday.