Metal & Oil & Gas News – Nctv.net
Mr Mohammed Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General said that Iraq has assured OPEC it will fully comply with an agreement to cut oil supply in order to bolster crude prices.
Iraq’s compliance stands now at 98 percent, the nation’s oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi told reporters, after addressing a conference in the Iraqi capital, also attended by Barkindo.
Compliance with the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the end of last year to cut supply is “encouraging,” Barkindo told the forum.
Mr Barkindo said that general compliance with supply cuts by the oil producers was 86 percent in January and 94 percent in February. The market is already balancing, adding stocks of crude were coming down.
Mr Luaibi said he was satisfied with the existing deal, but declined to say whether Iraq would support an extension, leaving it to an OPEC ministerial meeting planned in May.
He said that the current deal, “contains many positive elements and achieved a lot of targets; work is ongoing to reach the reduction of 1.8” million barrels per day (bpd) agreed by OPEC and 11 other nations including Russia for their combined production in the first half of 2017.
The accord has lifted crude to about $50 a barrel. But the price gain has also encouraged U.S. shale oil producers, which are not part of the pact, to boost output.
He added that while Iraq is committed to achieving 100 percent of its target reduction, it will proceed with projects to boost oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day before the end of the year.
He further added that OPEC’s second-largest producer, after Saudi Arabia, Iraq will proceed in parallel with exploration plans to increase its reserves by 15 billion barrels in 2018, to reach 178 billion barrels.
Source : REUTERS
Yaang Pipe Industry Co., Limited (www.yaang.com)
