Lagos — Saudi Aramco has joined Nigeria and others in an early oil cut officially slated to begin on May 1st.
A report by Bloomberg quoting an unnamed industry source said Aramco began reducing oil production earlier last week ahead of the May 1 start date for OPEC+ output cuts.
The country has cut about 12 million barrels a day to achieve the agreed level of 8.5 million barrels a day, the report said.
Fellow OPEC members Kuwait and Algeria have also began early cuts.
Although the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 23 other nations have agreed to cut global supply by 9.7 million barrels per day or 10% to reduce market glut and push up collapsing prices caused by the coronavirus crisis-
yet, prices are yet to rebound as expected. The cuts came too late as it could not override the oversupply worsened by low demand as a result of lockdown.
Kuwait, three days ago had announced an early cut saying it “felt responsibility to respond to market conditions.” Algeria also said last week its supply curbs would start immediately . Nigeria had also started cuts due to lack of storage.