The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of the OPEC+ alliance announced that the additional voluntary reduction in oil production is a precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market.
The committee said in a statement after its meeting on Monday that this voluntary reduction would be 1.66 million barrels per day.
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Algeria and Kazakhstan have all announced voluntary production cuts until the end of 2023.
Russia decided to extend its crude oil production cut by 500,000 barrels per day until the end of the year, and Russian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of energy Alexander Novak justified the measure by saying the market was experiencing “extreme volatility” and “uncertainty.” “The stability of the global oil market is a key element in ensuring energy security,” he said in a statement.
The Kremlin has also said that subsidizing oil and petroleum products prices is in the interest of the global energy sector.
Asked about the U.S. criticism, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “In this case, it is in the interest of the global energy (sector) to keep world prices of oil and petroleum products at the appropriate level. And that’s what we should focus on. Whether other countries are satisfied or not is their business.”
Read: Oil prices soar on unexpected voluntary cut from OPEC+
Peskov added that it is important to keep prices at a certain level because this sector is intensive and because in the foreseeable future, it is not possible to meet the needs of all countries from renewable sources.
The Kuwait News Agency quoted Kuwaiti Oil Minister Bader Al-Mulla as saying that voluntarily reducing oil production from the countries of the “OPEC+” alliance came as a preemptive move to support the stability of oil markets amid rapid global developments.
These include rising global interest rates, global debt levels, the banking crisis, and geopolitical developments.
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