Barkindo: Output Deal Will Help Stabilize Global Economy

The oil output cut deal last year between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries will stabilize the oil industry and the global economy, providing short-, mid- and long-term stability, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo told Sputnik on Thursday.

"The coming together for the first time in history of 24 producing countries on December 10 in Vienna has, in our opinion, created a global platform of producers with the sole objective of insuring stability in the oil markets in the short, medium and long term," Barkindo said.

"Therefore, there is a great opportunity for all the stakeholders, including the oil and gas industry, to solidify this platform and insure that it continues to perform the stabilization role in the best interests of the industry as well as the global economy" he noted.

In November 2016, OPEC agreed to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day to 32.5 million bpd for the whole organization starting January 2017. On December 10, 2016, OPEC held a meeting with non-OPEC countries in Vienna, at which 11 non-OPEC producers agreed to cut oil output by 558,000 bpd, with Russia cutting production by 300,000 bpd.

Eleven non-OPEC members committed to the cause are Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan.

In order to secure the implementation of the deal, the output cut monitoring committee was created, chaired by Kuwait from the OPEC side and Russia from the non-OPEC side. The committee also includes Oman, Venezuela and Algeria. The monitoring committee is due to meet in Vienna on January 21-22.