Algeria and OPEC endorse cut in oil production

Algeria’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Arkab, and OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais have endorsed the cut in oil production agreed this month by the OPEC+ alliance, Anadolu has reported.

Arkab met Al-Ghais in Algiers on Sunday and discussed the international oil market as well as the development prospects in the short and medium term, in the face of uncertainties that have affected the global oil market for several weeks now, explained the ministry. “They expressed their full confidence in the positive impact of the recent production cut agreement.”

The OPEC+ alliance announced on 5 October a reduction in oil production by 2 million barrels per day, starting as soon as 1 November. The endorsement of the cut by Algeria and OPEC follows severe US criticism of Saudi Arabia, the leader of OPEC, which Washington accused of siding with Russia in its war against Ukraine and of coercing some other nations into supporting the move.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, however, denied that the decision had any political connotations. “It was,” he insisted, “purely economic.”

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