Caracas Proposes 1/2m Barrels Cut in Non-OPEC Output

Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said his country had proposed that non-OPEC countries remove 400,000-500,000 of barrels of crude oil per day from the market to help support prices. Del Pino is visiting a number of oil-producing countries this week, including Russia, in a bid to whip support for measures to boost oil prices. Higher prices would help Venezuela's struggling and commodity-dependent economy, Reuters reported. "There is a proposal that we have to non-OPEC. If OPEC is producing 33 million barrels of oil per day ... and if non-OPEC incorporates 16 million, or half, they should also take out half of that ratio from the market, 400,000 or 500,000 barrels of oil per day," Del Pino said. Del Pino said he had discussed the idea with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow on Tuesday and that any potential oil freeze or output reduction deal between OPEC and non-OPEC members needed to be reached by an OPEC meeting scheduled for Nov. 30.