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Qatar: Current Situation Won’t Prevent Us from Committing to Oil Production Reduction Agreement | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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OPEC President Qatar’s Energy Minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada and OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo address a news conference after a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader


Astana- Qatar officially confirmed on Sunday its commitment to lower oil production and stick to the agreement in which oil output cut deal was agreed upon by OPEC and non-OPEC producers in May in Vienna.

Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said that the current conditions facing the region will not prevent Qatar from honoring its international commitment to lowering its oil production in line with the agreement reached in Vienna late 2016.

On the impact of the agreement, Saudi Energy Minister Khaled al-Falih said that a drawdown in crude oil inventories will accelerate in the next three to four months.

Falih, speaking to reporters in the Kazakh capital of Astana, also said Saudi Arabia planned to grow exports to the United States in the long-term.

“The US market will always be key to us, in the long term we will continue and grow exports to the Unites States, today the United States is well supplied,” Falih told a briefing.

For his part, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak confirmed statements made by Falih on the oil agreement and said there was no need to reconsider the deal to cut global oil production because it is still early to take any decision.

Two weeks after reaching an agreement regarding extending the deal to lower oil production until March 2018, some OPEC delegates wonder if the deal wouldl be sufficient to reduce the supply gap and drive up the prices.

The prices have fallen more than 10 percent to below $50 per barrel since OPEC and its allies agreed on May 25 to extend production cuts to around 1.8 million bpd by the end of March. The original agreement covered only the first half of 2017.

Even the current crisis between Qatar and other Gulf states, the sources of most OPEC’s crude oil, did not lead to an increase in prices.

Instead, attention is focused on Nigeria and Libya, OPEC members who are exempt from production cuts to help them overcome the years of unrest affected their production negatively. Both countries are now announcing higher output.