KUWAIT: Oil Minister Khaled Al-Fadhel on Sunday confirmed that OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing states had worked out a deal to slash crude output by 10 million barrels per day in May and June. The agreement is historic and the greatest in the oil history, said the minister in a statement to Kuwait TV, affirming that it had been endorsed by the stakeholders in the sector.

Oil markets have been negatively affected by repercussions of the coronavirus spread, where demand dropped, thus there must be a slash of the production and exportation of the crude, he added. Affirming that the oil producers were seeking to maintain a "certain price level and not a specific figure," the minister underlined their approach to preserve markets' stability.

Kuwait's quota according to the OPEC plus agreement is based on the October 2018 output level, where the cut in its share will be in the range of 640,000 bpd in May and June, he added. OPEC member countries and oil producing states outside the organization have recently agreed on trimming the production by nearly 10 million bpd, effective May 1 for a period ending on June 30.

They had said in a statement after the video conference that they also agreed on cutting the production by eight million bpd for six months starting on June 1 and ending on December 31. Moreover, they agreed on trimming the output by six million bpd for 16 months as of January 1, 2021, until April 30, 2022, in addition to examining its extension in December 2021. - KUNA