Russia, OPEC Create Output Monitoring Groups

Russia will create a monitoring group to control oil output reduction process inside the country, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.

The move follows a similar measure by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Saturday to establish a high-level committee to monitor the group's output, according to Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, TASS reported.

“We too will create a monitoring group inside [the country] at a meeting with our [oil] companies, which will also follow the situation … The most important thing is to maintain a certain decrease in oil production output in the country in general,” Novak told journalists.

OPEC and 12 non-OPEC oil producers gathered in Vienna on Saturday to finalize the details of a global pact to cut crude supplies in an effort to raise oil prices.

Non-OPEC countries agreed to reduce production by 558,000 barrels a day, according to a statement on OPEC's website. Russia is to slash its output by 300,000 barrels a day. OPEC had already struck a deal to reduce supplies by 1.2 million barrels per day.

Novak noted that he would meet with Russia’s oil companies’ officials the next week to discuss output reduction.

“By March we will have a reduction of about 200,000 barrels [per day], and in a short time, we will reach the target of 300,000 barrels,” Novak stressed.

He said that that the final aim is 10,947 million barrels per day, adding that Russia would start reducing oil output in January 2017.

Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran's oil minister, said in Vienna that countries outside OPEC are going to reduce oil production by nearly 600,000 barrels per day from January 1, 2017.

"The non-OPEC participants agreed to reduce oil production by around 600,000 barrels per day from January 1," he said.

Apart from Russia, the talks on Saturday were attended by or had comments or commitments sent from non-OPEC members Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Sudan and South Sudan.