Azerbaijan to attend OPEC+ summit in Vienna

Baku. 28 November. REPORT.AZ/ Energy Minister of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov will visit Vienna, Austria, November 29-30.

Report was told by press service of the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan.

Shahbazov will represent Azerbaijan in the third ministerial meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-member states in Vienna. Azerbaijan has been closely involved in the consultations to ensure balance of oil in the world oil market. So, on the eve of the 173th meeting of the OPEC Council of Ministers on November 30, in Vienna, telephone talks were held between the Minister of Energy, Industry and Natural Resources of Saudi Arabia Khalid al-Falih and Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov, and official Baku has once again demonstrated its consistent support.

 At the third OPEC Ministerial Council meeting, OPEC's presentation on the current situation in the world oil market, analysis of the Joint Monitoring Committee's report, speeches of representatives of non-cartel countries on fulfillment of commitments and new proposals for oil price stability will be discussed.

Notably, Azerbaijan has completely fulfilled its obligations on OPEC+ deal. Thus, average daily oil production in Azerbaijan was 785,000 barrels in the first 10 months of 2017, in line with an agreement on maintaining a daily oil production of 834,000 bpd. For the stabilization of oil prices in the world market Azerbaijan's position as one of the first countries to join OPEC initiatives a valuable contribution to the processes to find fair value of oil in the world market and its contributions have been repeatedly praised by the organization.

Notably, on November 30, 2016, OPEC countries have agreed to reduce daily oil output by 1.2 mln barrels to keep it at 32.5 mln barrels/day. On December 10, in Vienna, 11 non-member countries, including Azerbaijan, have signed agreement with OPEC to reduce overall daily production by 558,000 barrels. Within the 172nd meeting of the OPEC Ministerial Council on May 25, 2017, OPEC and non-OPEC states agreed to extend the contract on oil production cut till the end of March 31, 2018.