Baku, Azerbaijan, May 19
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev will visit Vienna, Austria, to participate in the 172nd meeting of the Council of Ministers of OPEC and non-OPEC countries on May 23-25, the country’s Energy Ministry said May 19.
According to the ministry, the visit will be realized with the consent of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
“Taking into account the importance of Azerbaijan's direct participation in the events for stabilization of oil prices and its leading role in those events, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo, as well as Kuwaiti Oil Minister, Head of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) Essam al-Marzouq appealed to Natig Aliyev with a proposal to have a meeting,” the ministry said.
A report on impact of the oil output reduction on international market, market trends and economic development is expected to be presented at the meeting. On the basis of the report, the Vienna agreement will be extended or another decision will be made.
OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from Jan. 1. In December 2016, non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce the output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from Jan. 1, 2017 for six months, extendable for another six months. A decision on the agreement is expected to be made at the 172nd meeting of the Council of Ministers of OPEC in Vienna on May 25.
“The agreement to reduce oil production, concluded on December 10, 2016 between OPEC and non-OPEC states, is historic,” Natig Aliyev was quoted as saying.
“The stabilizing oil market and oil prices, and fulfillment of obligations by the agreement participants testified to the correctness of the decision to reduce the oil production,” the minister said.
“The outcome of the Vienna agreement should be sustainable,” he added. “For this purpose, the active participation of all oil producing countries in this process and their activity for common interest is important. Azerbaijan, as a signatory to the agreement, is ready to further take actions to achieve stable oil prices.”
Azerbaijan fully complies with its obligations to reduce oil production by 35,000 barrels per day. Azerbaijan produced 793,900 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in January, 776,400 bpd in February, 733,300 bpd in March and 781,100 bpd in April 2017.