Exclusive: Russia orders companies to cut oil output by 20% from February levels - sources - Reuters

Exclusive: Russia orders companies to cut oil output by 20% from February levels - sources - Reuters:

The Russian energy ministry has told domestic oil producers to reduce oil output by around 20% from their average February levels, two industry sources told Reuters on Monday, which would bring Moscow in line with its commitment under a global deal.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other large oil producers led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, agreed to cut their combined oil output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in May and June in order to combat oversupply triggered by the coronavirus crisis.

With other countries, such as the United States and Norway, which are not a party to the OPEC+ deal, the reduction in total global oil output could be 20 million bpd, or a fifth of the world’s oil production.

Under the deal, Moscow has to cut its oil production by 2.5 million bpd from May and using the reference level of 11 million bpd - the figure which includes crude oil only and exempts gas condensate, a type of light oil.