OPEC is committed to restore the balance of the oil market and is not ruling out any option for discussion at the upcoming meeting on Thursday, including considering deeper cuts, Kuwait's Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq said in an exclusive interview with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) published on Tuesday.
"All options are on the table and could be discussed. However, any agreement should be satisfactory for all parties. And if necessity arises, we could increase the output cut. But it is premature to talk about that now," the minister told KUNA.
Kuwait was one of the first OPEC producers to support the Saudi-Russian proposal to roll over the cuts for another nine months until March 2018.
Speaking to KUNA, Al-Marzouq said today that Kuwait fully supports the extension of the deal for nine months, as well as all efforts aimed at rebalancing the global oil market.
"All indications so far, show that most countries, if not all, back the extension of this agreement," the minister told the Kuwaiti news agency.
Although signs and hints from OPEC producers point to support for a rollover of the cuts, not all members have voiced support for a nine-month extension.
Al-Marzouq also told KUNA that four other non-OPEC countries-Egypt, Norway, Turkmenistan, and Indonesia-could join the output cuts. Related: Oil Prices Rise As Saudis Discuss OPEC Deal Extension With Iraq
Norway's petroleum and energy ministry, however, said it had no plans to reduce output.
"The Ministry has a good dialogue with other countries about the oil market. We are not in a situation in which regulating production is on the agenda for Norway," Reuters quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.
While industry insiders expect Turkmenistan to possibly join the cuts, two weeks ago Egypt said that it would be attending the OPEC/non-OPEC meet this Thursday, but it would not be cutting production.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More