Norway Might Join Output Cuts If Major Producers Reach A Deal

Norway could discuss reducing its oil production if the world’s major producers reach a deal on significantly cutting global oil production, Tina Bru, Minister for Petroleum and Energy of Western Europe’s biggest oil producer, told Reuters over the weekend.    

“If a broad group of producers agree to cut production significantly, Norway will consider a unilateral cut if it supports our resource management and our economy,” Bru told Reuters via email on Saturday.

This week, a broad group of producers are expected to discuss a global cut in oil production to try to prevent the glut from overwhelming storage within weeks and to prop up oil prices so low that no one’s happy with them. Analysts remain skeptical that a major coalition of producers, including the United States, will agree to enforce significant production cuts in the range of 10 million bpd-15 million bpd, as touted by U.S. President Donald Trump.  

While all producers signal willingness to participate in talks, no one is willing to cut unless everyone else—including the U.S.—agrees to take part in those cuts.

Norway, for its part, is not a member of either OPEC or the extended OPEC+ format, which collapsed last month but is set to be revived at least in the form of talks expected later this week.

While Norway had cut its production in the 1990s and early 2000s when prices were low, it hasn’t done so as part of any deal with OPEC or other producers.

Right now, Norway by itself cannot do anything to help the severely imbalanced market, Reuters quoted Bru as saying to private Norwegian broadcaster TV2 last week.

“We’re still producing profitably at today’s oil price and nothing indicates that we’ll end up in a situation where we’d have to cut output,” the minister said last week.

Some Norwegian oilfields would turn in profits even at $10 oil, the Norwegian minister told the television broadcaster.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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