IEA: Russia fulfills oil output cut deal by 40% in February

MOSCOW, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- Russia cut its daily oil output by 120,000 barrels compared to October 2016 to 11.1 million barrels in February, having fulfilled an oil production cut agreement by 40%, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.

Oil major Rosneft reduced its daily oil output by 82,000 barrels compared with October 2016, Lukoil cut it by 17,000 barrels, Gazprom Neft by 23,000 barrels, and Surgutneftegas by 11,000 barrels.

OPEC states agreed to reduce their oil production by 1.2 million barrels daily to 32.5 million barrels in November 2016. Russia joined the agreement in December with a promise to cut output by 300,000 barrels daily compared with the level of October 2016. The agreement was concluded for January–June 2017 with potential prolongation.

OPEC increased its combined daily oil output by 170,000 barrels to 32 million barrels in February, having fulfilled the production cut agreement by 91%, the IEA also said.

Non-OPEC states fulfilled the oil production cut agreement by 34% in February.

The IEA keeps its forecast for global oil demand at 98 million barrels a day in 2017. The agency also projects that non-OPEC members will increase oil production by 400,000 barrels a day to 58.03 million barrels a day in 2017. The U.S. oil output is expected to grow by 390,000 barrels a day compared with 2016 to 12.91 million barrels a day in 2017.

The IEA also projects that the oil market may face a deficit of 0.5 million barrels a day in the first half of 2017 if OPEC keeps its current oil production level.

End