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OPEC member countries and its partners participating in the agreement to reduce oil production expect the raw material market to balance in the first quarter of 2018. Depending on this goal, it will be decided whether the deal will be extended, according to Kuwait oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouk.

The OPEC+ Monitoring Committee meets today in St Petersburg for the first time since it was decided to extend the agreement by the end of March 2018. The committee meets once every two months to monitor the implementation of the agreement. There are five ministers – three from OPEC and two from outside the organization.

Essam Al-Marzouk specified after today’s meeting that the next ministerial meeting would be in September, and technically on August 21st.

Saudi Arabian oil minister, Khalid A. Al-Falih, said at a press conference that his country would support the continuation of the agreement after March 2018. He added that Saudi Arabia plans to limit its exports in August to 6.6 million barrels per day. Yield in the country for six months was less than 10 million barrels per day.

In his words, OPEC countries and the non-cartel members of the agreement reached 98% implementation of the planned production cuts during the first half of the year. Oil prices have fallen in recent weeks amid worries about rising oil production in the United States that are not involved in the deal. Some countries are also not disciplined enough to enforce the restrictions altogether.

“Despite the high degree of implementation of the arrangements, we insist all countries to fulfill their 100% commitment”, said the Russian Energy Minister, Alexander Novak. He added that is open to tighter monitoring of the implementation of the agreement and its possible extension.

According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, announced earlier this month, compliance with voluntary cartel restrictions fell to 78% from 95% in the previous month.

Except for US mining, prices are under pressure from increased production in OPEC member countries Libya and Nigeria, which are exempt from the agreed yield cut due to political instability. OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo specified that once Nigeria reaches 1.8 million barrels per day, it will not exceed this amount until the end of the agreement.

By the end of 2016, OPEC and 11 independent oil exporting countries, including Russia, had reached an agreement to reduce oil yields. Under the agreement, the participants in the agreement had to cut their yields in the first six months of 2017 by 1.8 million barrels per day compared to October 2016.

At the OPEC meeting in Vienna in May this year, the agreement was prolonged by another nine months until April 2018.

Meanwhile, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak commented that the full implementation of the agreement would allow the market to be further withdrawn by about 200,000 barrels per day.

