OSLO (Reuters) – Norway, Western Europe’s largest oil producer, will announce its decision on whether to slash crude output soon, potentially adding its weight to a global push to shore up prices, the energy minister said on Monday.
“The agreement among the OPEC+ producer nations is very positive,” Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru said in an emailed statement to Reuters, adding that Norway will draw its own conclusion on potential cuts “in the near future”.
The OPEC+ group, comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other countries, agreed to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in May and June, or about 10% of global supply.
“This is an important contribution to help bring stability to the oil market over the coming year,” Bru said of the deal.
OPEC+ has said it wants producers outside the group – such as the United States, Canada, Brazil and Norway – to cut a further 5 million bpd.
Norway has said it would consider a unilateral output cut in support of the deal, but has not said how big its potential reduction could be.
Norway’s crude output stood at 1.75 million bpd in February, up 26% from a year ago. Including condensate and natural gas liquids (NGL), the oil liquids production was 2.1 million bpd, corresponding to around 2% of global output.
Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Victoria Klesty; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Jan Harvey