KUWAIT CUT OIL PRODUCTION

KUNA - KUWAIT, April 23 -- Minister of Oil and Acting Minister of Electricity and Water Dr. Khaled Al-Fahdel on Thursday denied a media report claiming Kuwait was pressured to speed up slashing crude oil production ahead of implementing a recent deal on production cut.

A decision in this regard is sovereign and the State of Kuwait supports collective action and consensus among OPEC's member states, the minister said in remarks to KUNA, also affirming this approach as to adhering to the recent agreement between the organization members and their partners in the OPEC+ group.

Although the agreement goes into effect as of May 1, the State of Kuwait sensing a responsibility for responding to market conditions has already decreased some of its supplies to the international markets, minister Al-Fadhel declared.

The crude producers worked out an accord April 13, cutting the daily output by 9.7 million barrels per day from May 1 to June 30, and by 7.7 mb/d for six months starting from July 1.

Stressing on Kuwait's consideration of current hard conditions in the market, minister Al-Fadhel affirmed it has adhered to its output quotas as agreed upon in previous deals over the past years.

Moreover, he has noted necessity that the stakeholders honor the cuts that have been agreed upon in coming months. He also called for maintaining "spirit of team work to face forthcoming challenges emanating from the coronavirus impact on the global oil demand." Present period of time warrants unifying ranks within OPEC and with the organization partners, he said, describing the phase as unprecedented in history of oil.

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