Azerbaijan supports extension of agreement on oil reduction

BAKU, April 25 (Xinhua)-- A global oil pact in December to cut output has yielded positive results, Azerbaijan's energy minister said here Tuesday.

"Since January 2017, crude prices ranged between 50-60 U.S. dollars, and that is precisely what we have expected," Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said on the sidelines of an international forum sponsored by the country's state oil company SOCAR. Aliyev added that Azerbaijan supports an extension of the so-called Vienna Agreement to reduce output.

The world's oil-producing nations should "agree to extend the agreement before the end of this year in order to keep oil prices at a stable level," he said.

The forum, focusing on the oil industry downstream in the Caspian region and Central Asia, covers the latest trends in hydrocarbon exports from the region.

Oil cartel OPEC decided at a meeting in November to cut its production by 1.2 million barrels a day from October levels.

In December 2016 in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC countries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to jointly curtail oil output by 558,000 barrels per day in the first half of 2017.