Oil cut participants in line with deal: OPEC's Barkindo

By Murat Temizer and Emre Gurkan Abay

MOSCOW

All participating countries are in line with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) global oil production cut deal, the cartel’s Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said Wednesday.

At the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow, where Anadolu Agency is a media partner, Barkindo said Russia was implementing oil production cuts beyond what was agreed.

The secretary general declared that market fundamentals would decide whether the oil cut deal should be extended beyond March 2018.

Moscow, in its leadership role between OPEC and non-OPEC countries, "complied by more than 100 percent in the last two months," he noted.

Barkindo shared his optimism that the oil market looked brighter than before, while adding that OPEC hoped to continue its cooperation with Russia.

On May 25, OPEC members agreed to lower oil output and extend their previous agreement by nine more months to March 2018.

OPEC members' compliance with the production cut agreement increased to 82 percent in August, from 75 percent in July, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report.

With non-OPEC participants, the oil production cut will see 1.8 million barrels per day, equal to 2 percent of global production.

This is the organization's second production cut in the last two years, and its second intervention in the global oil market since mid-2014 when oil prices began to fall.