UPDATE: Russia to cut oil output from current level of 11.2 mln bpd

(Adds details in paragraphs 8–9)

MOSCOW, Dec 1 (PRIME) -- Russia will cut its oil production from the current level of 11.2 million barrels per day in the framework of an agreement with OPEC, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Thursday.

On Wednesday, OPEC agreed to reduce their daily oil production by 1.2 million barrels to 32.5 million barrels from January 1, 2017 until the end of June. Novak said then that Russia welcomed the agreement and is ready to cut its own oil output by 300,000 barrels gradually if OPEC, including Indonesia, really decreases its daily oil production.

“(We will cut the production) from today’s level, from the production figures that we have now, in November–December…Our current production is about 11.2 million barrels per day,” Novak said.

The ministry expects all Russia’s largest oil companies to decrease production. “It will be a proportional decrease,” he said.

The ministry will prepare a reduction schedule by a December 9 meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC states on the agreement. “It will have been prepared by the meeting with OPEC countries,” Novak said.

The ministry will work on details later and hold a meeting with companies if necessary, he added.

Russia is also interested in participation in an OPEC committee that monitors the oil production deal, he said.

Novak also said that he plans to discuss the upcoming meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries with the organization’s Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo soon. But Moscow is also holding consultations with other non-OPEC states that may take part in the agreement.

“Yesterday, representatives of OPEC who take part in the work on consultations with countries outside OPEC named the countries with which they are holding consultations. We are also having corresponding consultations. We think that there are countries that may participate in the deal – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Oman, Bahrain and others. We are working in this direction,” he said.

Cooperation between Russia and OPEC is of a long-term character, and Moscow is even ready to consider prolongation of the production cut agreement with the organization after June 2017, if all participants of the agreement comply with it, he added.

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