BAGHDAD, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadhban on Friday reiterated Iraq's full commitment to the OPEC production cut-off agreement, which came into force on Jan. 1, 2019.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Oil quoted Ghadhban as saying that "the ministry has taken measures to implement the reduction of oil production by three percent, which constitute about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) of the total production of Iraq."
The reduction came in accordance with the proportion of the agreement of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members and its partners, which was taken at the organization meeting held in Vienna last month.
Ghadhban said that Iraq has played an important role with other oil producers in reaching this agreement in order to find "logical and realistic solutions to the challenges of the global oil market to control the oil supply gap and work to restore balance between supply and demand, which in turn will support oil prices," according to the statement.
He also asserted on the keenness of the Iraqi ministry to stabilize production throughout the country at the rate of 4,513 million bpd for the next six months, it added.
Ghadhban expressed his "hope to achieve the goals planned through this agreement, and to support oil prices and restore stability to the global oil market."
On Dec. 7, 2018, the OPEC exporting countries and non-OPEC oil producers struck a deal to jointly cut the crude production by 1.2 million bpd, to be implemented in January 2019 for an initial period of six months.
According to the reached agreement, OPEC member states contribute 0.8 million bpd output cut and non-OPEC oil pumpers, including Russia, contribute 0.4 million bpd output cut.
