OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, Iraq, will support any unanimous decision that the OPEC+ group makes regarding the alliance’s future oil production policy, Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar Ismaael said on Friday, as quoted by Reuters.
Earlier this week, a Reuters report said that Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kuwait—the biggest OPEC producers behind Saudi Arabia—are reportedly not particularly inclined to support a rollover of the cuts of 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd), because such cuts are too deep for their economies and budget incomes to sustain.
Sources in OPEC told Reuters that the two leaders of the OPEC+ pact, Saudi Arabia and Russia, would be inclined to favor rolling over the cuts of 7.7 million bpd in 2021, instead of easing them by 2 million bpd as set out in the current OPEC+ production agreement. However, the UAE and Kuwait, which have typically followed Saudi Arabia’s lead when it comes to agreements and compliance with the cuts, as well as Iraq, are reportedly unwilling to back a rollover of the deep cuts, according to Reuters sources.
Kuwait denied the Reuters report, with Oil Minister Khaled al-Fadhel saying that “Kuwait has supported the deal from day one, and has been one of the leading countries in terms of compliance with its agreed cuts in line with its longstanding history of impeccable compliance.”
“Kuwait fully supports the joint OPEC+ efforts to restore balance to the oil market, and going forward we will also support whatever necessary joint decisions will be agreed to under the OPEC+ framework,” al-Fadhel said in a statement carried by Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA.
Iraq’s comment on the latest market rumor came on Friday, after its oil minister said that OPEC’s second-biggest producer after Saudi Arabia would back any group decision about the cuts going forward.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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