Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has announced that global oil output was cut by 1.4 million barrels per day last month, in the aftermath of the deal between OPEC and non-OPEC countries to rebalance the market.
Novak made his announcement during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, referring to preliminary data without explaining the sources of the data.
If Novak's figures are correct, it would mean that OPEC and non-OPEC countries are close to meeting their goal of cutting a combined 1.8 million barrels per day by the first half of this year.
At a compliance meeting in Vienna earlier in January, Novak said that Russia had reduced its oil production by some 100,000 barrels a day.
Russia intends to cut its oil production by 200,000 barrels per day by the end of the first quarter and afterwards 300,000 barrels per day.
"Some countries have cut more than was planned and are moving ahead of schedule. Russian oil production was down by 117,000 barrels per day in January," confirmed Novak oil production data for the last month, adding that Moscow was also moving ahead of schedule with its cuts. Related: Trump's Trade War With Mexico Could Crash Natural Gas Prices
Novak said Russian oil companies are working "ahead of schedule" to make the agreed cuts and to participate in the implementation of the agreement reached with the OPEC and non-cartel members.
OPEC's agreement has already at the beginning of this year justified its existence, according to Reuters' survey from this week, by cutting output more than 1 million barrels per day in January. Based on this data, some 82 percent of the cut commitments have been met.
"We are also noticing a significant decrease in speculative pressure to the prices," Novak told Putin.
Novak expressed his expectations to President Putin that the market would rebalance by the middle of this year.
By Damir Kaletovic for Oilprice.com
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