OPEC+ will meet again on March 4, but the group will likely agree to keep the same level of oil production through April 2021, Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar said in a press conference on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia will continue making its extra voluntary cuts of a million barrels per day, the Minister added.
“I think in March the agreement will be that output will remain on the same level,” the Minister said, adding that Saudi Arabia would continue making its extra voluntary cuts of a million barrels per day.
The Iraqi Oil Minister also reiterated its commitment to the production cuts, although it has yet to meet its promised quota.
According to Jabbar, Iraq will keep its oil production at 3.6 million barrels per day in February.
But that will be possible only if the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region—also oil-rich—does its part. It has yet to do so.
Iraq, battling an economic crisis fueled in part by low oil prices, is finding the production quota difficult to meet.
Iraq has stated that Iraq needs oil to trade at $80 per barrel in order to help it plug its budget holes.
“Iraq will export in 2021 about one billion and 100 million barrels of crude oil according to market data. The budget needs 140 trillion dinars ($96 billion). The price of $ 80 a barrel is the right price to make Iraq can pay the budget dues,” Jabbar said earlier in the week.
Jabbar admitted that there is no chance of oil rising that high this year, and instead expects oil to reach $60 per barrel this quarter, and as much as $63 by the third quarter.
Iraq remains OPEC’s second-largest oil producer and relies on oil revenues for 90% of government spending.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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