Iraq Indicates Willingness to Extend Cuts

Iraq Indicates Willingness to Extend Cuts
A visitor passes ENOC-branded oil barrels stored at the Emirates National Oil Co. lubricants and grease manufacturing plant in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, March 12, 2012. ENOC, as Dubai’s government-owned refiner is known, will expand the plant’s capacity to 250,000 tons a year by 2014, it said. Photographer: Gabriela Maj/Bloomberg

Iraq favors an additional one-percent cut in oil production by OPEC and its fellow oil producers, according to the Iraqi Oil Minister, Jabar El Luaibi, Reuters reports.

At present, OPEC and several other major, non-OPEC oil producers have agreed to cut crude production by 1.8 million barrels per day (b/d) until March of 2018 in an attempt to draw down global supply and increase oil prices.

“Some think that cuts should be extended beyond March, three or four months, or six months, or maybe till the end of 2018,” the oil minister, said, adding, “[s]ome, like Ecuador and other countries, even Iraq, think there should be another cut of 1 percent,” according to Bloomberg.

Rising production in the US, Libya, and Nigeria has undercut the agreement, leading to relatively stable oil prices of around $50 a barrel.

As such, some countries, notably Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the UAE have expressed interest in extending the production-cut agreement.

Despite the interest in extending the agreement, El Luaibi noted that there is “no firm decision yet” on the next step, Bloomberg reports.

The minister’s remarks were made at an energy conference in the UAE, according to Reuters.

Iraq is OPEC’s second biggest oil producer. 

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