Kuwait Oil Minister: Non-OPEC Compliance To Cuts At 50 Percent

While OPEC producers are boasting an unusually high initial 90 percent plus compliance to the oil output cuts, the non-OPEC nations that have joined the global deal to curb oil supply are complying at a 50 percent-rate, Kuwait’s Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq said on Monday.

OPEC’s compliance is around 92 percent, while non-OPEC countries compliance exceeds 50 percent, state-run Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) quoted al-Marzouq as saying on the sidelines of an event today.

Eleven non-OPEC producers pledged in December to support OPEC’s efforts to bring oil markets back to balance and lift oil prices, by cutting a combined 558,000 bpd between January and June. A total of 300,000 bpd of the non-OPEC production cut was promised by Russia, which has said that it would gradually cut oil output over the first half of this year.

Russia’s energy ministry says that the country had cut 117,000 bpd of its crude oil production in January.

According to al-Marzouq, the non-OPEC producers would gradually comply with the cuts by April and May, but he said, as quoted by KUNA:

“We understand these circumstances, but we want all countries to comply by 100 percent."

Early last week, S&P Global Platts estimated that OPEC members had achieved in January a 91-percent compliance rate to promised cuts.

Related: Qatar Petroleum Continues To Climb Past The Oil Majors

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said last Friday that OPEC achieved a record initial compliance rate of 90 percent.

On the other hand, the 11 non-OPEC producers that have joined the cuts managed a mere 40 percent compliance to the cuts, according to Reuters calculations.

In the absence of mechanisms to enforce the cuts as per the deal, OPEC and non-OPEC nations have set up a Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee to assess progress on supply reduction. The committee consists of OPEC’s Algeria, Kuwait and Venezuela and non-OPEC Russia and Oman.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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