Baku, Azerbaijan, April 19
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
Kazakhstan will significantly reduce the oil production in May-June in order to meet its commitment within the deal on oil production cut with OPEC, Energy Ministry’s website said.
"Kazakhstan did not commit to produce fixed volume of oil every month, Kazakhstan assumed obligations to reduce average production by 20,000 per day from 1.7 million barrels per day in a six months period starting from January 1 till July 1," Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev told reporters.
He noted that the average oil output fell by 30,000 barrels per day in January. In February, the volume of production slightly increased, and in March oil output exceeded 1.7 million tons.
Bozumbayev said that the situation will change a little in April, and oil production will notably decrease in May and June. According to the minister, oil production in Kazakhstan is declining in summer period due to climatic conditions and the country took this fact into account while taking obligation on oil output cut.
"I think we will fulfill our obligations," the minister said.
In December 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached their first deal since 2001 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices.
Non-OPEC producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 bpd starting from Jan. 1, 2017 for six months, extendable for another six months, to take into account prevailing market conditions and prospects.
OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from Jan. 1, with top exporter Saudi Arabia cutting as much as 486,000 bpd.
Within the deal with OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, Kazakhstan has committed to cut oil output by 20,000 barrels per day from the November 2016 level starting from Jan. 1, 2017.
According to Kazakh Statistics Committee, Kazakhstan’s oil and gas condensate production increased by 5.2 percent to 21.13 million tons in 1Q2017 compared to the same period of 2016.
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