Speaking to reporters following a virtual meeting with oil and energy ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC allies, especially Russia, Mr. Zangeneh said, “We just had a meeting which was a sequel to the Thursday/Friday OPEC+ meeting. In the meeting an agreement was reached for reduction of 10 million barrels a day by OPEC+. There was just a problem with Mexico which was supposed to curb its output by 400,000 b/d which was not endorsed by the Mexican minister, then.”

He said over these days since the Thursday meeting, Mexico had agreed to cut only 100,000 b/d of its output in May and June and they said the remaining would be shouldered by the US.

“Anyway the agreement was finalized and will be implemented by May,” he added.

The Iranian Minister of Petroleum further added that energy Ministers of G20 were also reported to cut their output by 3.7 mbd within a year.

Furthermore, Zangeneh said, the Saudi Energy Minister said in the meeting that his country along with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had agreed to voluntarily cut their supplies by a further 2 mbd to help the oil prices in the market.

“We hope that the market will be balanced and the result of the deal will hopefully be visible by Monday when global markets reopen,” he added.

“In fact, when oil barrels are physically removed from the market, it would be very important and determining for the market sentiments,” the Iranian official said.

The output of OPEC+ will be curbed by 9.7 mbd in May and June to be followed by 8 mbd until January 2021. Furthermore, the cuts would continue at 6 mbd from January 2021 through April 2022.  

He also said that Iran, Venezuela and Libya were still exempted from the cuts.