Novak says to attend OPEC committee meeting on March 18

SOCHI, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak will attend a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of OPEC and non-OPEC states in Baku on March 18, but the schedule of meetings is not ready yet, Novak told reporters on Friday.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that Novak will skip the meeting and that his deputy Pavel Sorokin would represent Russia.

“I will definitely be in Baku. But the schedule is tough, we are working on that now, but we will definitely participate in the meeting, our whole delegation is going to,” Novak said.

It is too early to speak about prolongation of the oil output reduction deal. “We are in the middle of March now, and we have time roughly until the end of June to monitor the situation and make a decision later,” he said.

In November 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC states including Russia first agreed to reduce their oil output to rebalance the market. In December 2018, the participants of the deal decided to cut production by an additional 800,000 barrels per day for OPEC and 400,000 barrels per day for non-OPEC states, including 230,000 barrels per day for Russia, from the level of October 2018. The deal expires at the end of June.

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