Russia fully enforces its oil output cuts, Novak says

Russian is fulfilling its oil output cut obligations, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Sunday following a meeting of the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers.

OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, on Sunday after seven hours of talks decided to reduce overall production targets from 2024 by a further total of 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd).

"The result of the discussions was the extension of the deal until the end of 2024," Novak said.

He said that total production cuts, which OPEC+ has undertaken since October 2022, reached 3.66 million bpd to ensure stability on the global oil market.

However, many of these reductions will not be real as the group lowered the targets for Russia, Nigeria and Angola to bring them into line with their actual current production levels.

Separately, Novak's office said that Russia will tweak its crude oil production level to 9.828 million bpd from Jan.1, and taking into account earlier announced additional voluntary reduction of 500,000 bpd, its output target will stand at around 9.3 million bpd.

Novak also said the market is more or less balanced, and demand is rising, although the group would monitor interest rate decisions by global central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, for clues on the economy that could influence fuel consumption.

"That's the indicator (interest rate decisions), which is having an impact on investments, on demand for oil and oil products," he said.

Novak also said that OPEC+ could adjust its decisions if necessary.

He said the data from secondary sources related to the OPEC+ voluntary cuts starting from May will emerge in the middle of this month.