Kuwait: Oil producers compliance with output cut pact is good

The Kuwaiti oil minister said on Friday that compliance by oil producers with a global pact on reducing crude supplies was “good and offers hope”, state news agency KUNA reported on Friday.

Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other non-OPEC producers are due to meet in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Monday to discuss the pact which was reached earlier this year.

“Compliance is good and offers hope” for it has reached 106 percent by OPEC members and 80 percent by non-OPEC states,” KUNA quoted Essam al-Marzouq as saying after he arrived in St Petersburg.

Major oil producing states will discuss the oil reduction pact, review market conditions and examine any proposals related to the deal at a meeting next week, Marzouq had earlier said.

Kuwait heads the joint ministerial committee of OPEC and non-OPEC states, known as JMMC, that monitors compliance with the pact to cut 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil. The cuts began in January 2017 and run to March 2018.

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Alongside Kuwait, the JMMC includes Venezuela, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Oman.

Marzouq told KUNA the meeting would discuss “steps for continuing implementation of the agreement and discuss any suggestion from member states.”

The committee would also submit any recommendations it approved to member states.

The JMMC can make recommendations to OPEC and other oil producers to adjust the agreement, if necessary.