The 14-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to deepen its output cuts in Vienna at the 177th OPEC meeting by 503,000 bd as of January 1, 2020 from 1.2 mbd to 1.703 mbd.

Iran, Venezuela and Libya remained exempted from any output cuts. 

Secondary sources were designated OPEC and non-OPEC production reference sources, while some countries had stated prior to the 177th OPEC meeting that they would not accept secondary sources as such, and that it was preferable for each country to report their oil output.

Removal of condensate from crude oil output figures for non-OPEC producers was also endorsed at the 177th OPEC meeting. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak believed that by removing condensate from the crude oil production calculation, his country’s production in December would be about 225 to 230,000 barrels a day lower.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo, the former President of OPEC Conference in 2019 was replaced with Algerian Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab for 2020. Angola Energy Minister will be his deputy.

Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, the Iranian representative to the OPEC Board of Governors, was elected Vice Chairman of the OPEC Board of Governors in 2020. President of the board will be representative of Gabon.

OPEC Board of Governors is the executive pillar of OPEC, whose main functions are to manage the affairs of the Organization and to execute conference decisions, to review and decide on reports submitted by the Secretary-General, to provide reports and recommendations to the Conference on Organization Affairs, to arrange the organization's budget for each calendar year and submit it to the conference for approval, etc.