Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan will continue its commitment to produce 123 thousand barrels of oil daily in February-March in line with the OPEC agreement, the country’s Energy Ministry has reported.

Azerbaijan had the same commitment in January. In addition, in the next two months, the country will increase its daily crude oil production by 8,000 barrels and keep production at the level of 595,000 barrels.

The decision to continue with the existing quotas on daily crude oil production for the period of February-March, was made during the 13th Ministerial Meeting of the OPEC+ countries on January 5.

According to the new agreement, OPEC+ countries’ daily crude oil production will be 7.1 million barrels in February and 7 million barrels in March.

During the meeting, Azerbaijan Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov noted that the uncertainty arising from the pandemic continues to pressure the oil market and that the demand is recovering weaker than expected.

“The main goal for us is to ensure and maintain the balance of supply and demand in the market. Therefore, I think that the transition from a sharp reduction in production to an increase should be gradual and cautious,” the minister stated.

Moreover, during the meeting, Azerbaijan’s contribution to the achievement of this agreement between the OPEC+ countries, a continuation of the dialogue in order to establish stability in the oil market and reaching the agreement between the parties was highly appreciated.

In April 2020, OPEC and non-OPEC countries entered into an agreement on the reduction of daily oil production by 9.7 million barrels in May-June and 164,000 barrels for Azerbaijan.

On July 31, the first phase of the OPEC+ agreement of April 12 to reduce daily oil production by 9.7 million barrels was completed.

In the second phase of the agreement, covering the period from August 1 to December 31, the daily production of crude oil in OPEC+ countries will be reduced by 7.7 million barrels, which is 18 percent less than in October 2018.

Additionally, at the 12th Ministerial Meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries, it was decided to reduce the daily production of crude oil by 7.2 million barrels in January 2021 and to regulate the increase in daily production provided, that it does not exceed 0.5 million barrels, through monthly OPEC+ Ministerial Meetings. Azerbaijan’s commitment, according to the new “Declaration on Cooperation”, will be 123,000 barrels in January 2021. Thus, in January, Azerbaijan must increase daily oil production by 8,000 barrels and keep production at the level of 595,000 barrels.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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