Opec and allies may deepen oil cut deal

BAGHDAD: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and allied oil producers will consider deepening their existing oil supply reduction deal by about 400,000 barrels per day to 1.6 million bpd, Iraq’s oil minister said yesterday.

The minister, Thamer Ghadhban, told reporters here that Opec and its allies, together known as OPEC+, will consider deepening the cuts at meetings due this week in Vienna.

Opec+ oil exporters have coordinated their output for three years to balance the market and support prices. Their current deal, which agreed to cut supply by 1.2 million bpd from January this year, is due to expire at the end of March.

Iraq will exceed 100% commitment with the supply deal as of Sunday, Ghadhban also said, adding that an agreement capping production from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region will also help the country’s compliance.

The agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) caps production from the northern Iraqi region at 450,000 bpd, he said. About 250,000 bpd of the KRG’S output will be handed over to the central Iraqi government and 200,000 bpd will be used by the region to pay back debt owed to foreign firms, he added.

The minister also said that Iraq’s crude output has not been affected by anti-graft protests that broke out in early October across Baghdad and the oil-rich regions of the south.