Baku, Azerbaijan, April 1
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Saudi Arabia played a central role in the OPEC Plus agreement to cut production originally concluded in late 2016, Trend reports citing Fitch.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia's oil production (including condensate) averaged 10.3 million barrels per day (mmbpd), around 1.7mmbpd below its maximum production capacity, Fitch said in its report.
“We assume that in 2019 the country's production will approximate 10MMbpd as OPEC Plus may need to extend the production cut into 2H19 and beyond. We believe the agreement is ultimately positive for Saudi Aramco; though the company's volumes have been negatively impacted, the agreement helped to bring the market closer to equilibrium and to stabilise oil prices,” reads the report.
OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.
The 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting was held in Vienna, Austria, on December 7, 2018.
The meeting participants decided to adjust the overall production by 1.2 million barrels per day, effective as of January 2019 for an initial period of six months. The contributions from OPEC and the voluntary contributions from non-OPEC participating countries of the ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ will correspond to 0.8 million barrels per day (2.5 percent), and 0.4 million barrels per day (2 percent), respectively.
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