OPEC+ Discuss Further 1.5M Barrels Per Day Output Cut

OPEC+ countries are discussing the reduction of an additional 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from the total oil production level, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said on Thursday.

"We recommend that non-OPEC reduce 0.5 million bpd and 1 million bpd for OPEC member countries, and extend the previous decision and roll-over the figure decided in December until the end of 2020," Zangeneh told reporters at Hotel Kempinski in Vienna.

Saudi Arabia-led OPEC and Russia-spearheaded non-OPEC had agreed in December 2019 to curb their oil production by another 0.5 million bpd to 1.7 million bpd from the beginning of January 2020 until the end of June 2020.

The Kingdom also said it would voluntarily continue to curb its individual oil production by an additional 0.4 million bpd during the first half of this year. It is yet unknown whether Riyadh will extend its voluntary output cut until the end of 2020.

"Tomorrow, everything depends on the non-OPEC agreement to accept a curb of 0.5 million bpd for the second quarter," Zangeneh said, adding "we have no deal without their agreement."

He noted that Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak would be at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna on Friday to discuss the decision.

Novak left the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting on Wednesday before it was concluded, while Russian news agency TASS ran reports late Wednesday that Russia and Kazakhstan would not support an additional output cut of 1.5 million bpd for the second quarter.

Zangeneh, commenting on how OPEC would split the 1 million bpd cut among its members, said it would be "like the previous distribution," adding that non-OPEC would also decide among themselves how to distribute their cut of 0.5 million bpd.

Asked whether OPEC has any alternatives if non-OPEC fails to agree with the propose decision, Zangeneh replied that there is no other plan. -