Iraq
A member of the Iraqi government forces walks through the Bai Hassan oil field, west of the multi-ethnic northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq has not asked the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to exclude them from further global oil output cuts, Iraq’s oil minister said on Saturday.
“The results of the agreement [to reduce oil production] were positive and relatively influential despite the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic on the economies of the producing industrial countries,” Ihsan Abdul-Jabar told Iraqi state media outlet al-Sabaah.
“Iraq did not ask OPEC to exclude it from reducing production for fear of a new decline in the price of a barrel in the global markets,” the oil minister added.
OPEC members will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss a possible extension production cut as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on global demand. The organization and its allies (OPEC+), most notably Russia, agreed in April to cut the global output of oil in an attempt to boost depressed oil prices during the global crisis caused by COVID-19.
Abdul-Jabar says he expects oil prices to reach $50 per barrel on the global markets in early 2021.
Iraq had to cut an extra 400 thousand barrels per day, on top of the 850 thousand designated by OPEC+ earlier this year to make up for overproduction.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded by five states, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, and has now grown to 13 members. The group controls more than half the world’s oil reserves and has a major influence on global oil prices.
OPEC+ is an alliance formed between members of OPEC along with non-member countries that export crude oil.
“The results of the agreement [to reduce oil production] were positive and relatively influential despite the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic on the economies of the producing industrial countries,” Ihsan Abdul-Jabar told Iraqi state media outlet al-Sabaah.
“Iraq did not ask OPEC to exclude it from reducing production for fear of a new decline in the price of a barrel in the global markets,” the oil minister added.
OPEC members will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss a possible extension production cut as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on global demand. The organization and its allies (OPEC+), most notably Russia, agreed in April to cut the global output of oil in an attempt to boost depressed oil prices during the global crisis caused by COVID-19.
Abdul-Jabar says he expects oil prices to reach $50 per barrel on the global markets in early 2021.
Iraq had to cut an extra 400 thousand barrels per day, on top of the 850 thousand designated by OPEC+ earlier this year to make up for overproduction.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded by five states, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, and has now grown to 13 members. The group controls more than half the world’s oil reserves and has a major influence on global oil prices.
OPEC+ is an alliance formed between members of OPEC along with non-member countries that export crude oil.
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