Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 12
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
OPEC+ agreement continues to positively affect oil prices, and remains beneficial for the OPEC members, as well as the countries beyond the Cartel.
“The oil-producing countries must realize how much oil the market needs. Kazakhstan has already supported the extension of the agreement with OPEC until March 2018. We see that the deal contributes to higher oil prices, and it is beneficial for oil-producing countries, including Kazakhstan,” Chief Energy Researcher of the Institute of Economy of Kazakhstan Oleg Yegorov told Trend.
Speaking about Kazakhstan's dissatisfaction on the agreement, Yegorov added that in many ways it could be due to the fact that the OPEC agreement was concluded a short time after the launch of the Kashagan oil field.
“Each oil-producing country tries to increase the production capacity of newly launched deposit during its first years of operation, and consequently, the OPEC agreement went counter to the plans of Kazakhstan regarding the Kashagan field,” said Yegorov.
OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached an agreement in December 2016 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices. OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1.
Non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 1, 2017.