MOSCOW (Reuters) - A return to the oil production levels that were in place prior to the 2016 deal to cut output is one of the options for easing curbs, Russia’s energy minister said.
Sources said this week that Saudi Arabia and Russia were discussing raising OPEC and non-OPEC oil production to ease 17 months of strict supply curbs amid concerns that a price rally has gone too far.
“We have agreed that within a month we will additionally study this issue ... I can say that one of the options which could be considered is attaining the levels which were in place at the time of the signing of the agreement,” RIA news agency on Saturday quoted the minister, Alexander Novak, as saying.
OPEC and non-OPEC ministers meet in Vienna on June 22-23, and a final decision will be taken there.
The existing deal came into force on January 1, 2017, and envisaged that global oil producers would cut their combined output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to cut bloated stockpiles and prop up oil prices.
An industry source told Reuters that one of the options under discussion was to cap oil production in Russia at the level of October 2016, the baseline level for the current agreement. In October 2016, Russia’s oil output reached a 30-year high of 11.247 million bpd.
Russia had pledged to cut oil production by 300,000 bpd to 10.947 mln. But in March and in April this year it failed to fully comply with the deal, pumping at the pace of 10.97 million bpd, a 11-month high.
OPEC’s semi-annual meeting in Vienna on
