Novak: Ministry gets no proposals on 1 mln bpd oil output cut

MOSCOW, Mar 2 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Energy Ministry has not received any proposals on an additional oil output cut of 1 million barrels per day by OPEC+ and is guided by the recommendations of an extraordinary meeting of the technical committee that took place in February, Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Monday.

“We have no such proposals… We are officially guided by what the working committee considered a month ago. There was a discussion of the market situation. And the technical committee made some proposals, as you know. It is what the joint ministerial monitoring committee is to discuss,” he said.

On February 28, the Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia was pushing to make a substantial cut in oil production by additional 1 million barrels per day when OPEC and its allies meet in early March, as global energy producers scramble to respond to the coronavirus outbreak that had crippled demand.

In November 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC states including Russia first decided to reduce their oil output to rebalance the market, and agreed on additional reduction in December 2018. In July, they prolonged the deal until April 2020. The nearest ministerial meeting in Vienna is slated for March 6.

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