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Venezuela meets 70 pct of OPEC-agreed cutback target in oil output

Xinhua, January 23, 2017 Adjust font size:

Venezuela has fulfilled 70 percent of its target goal to cut back crude output by 1.8 million barrels per day (BPD), Oil Minister Nelson Martinez said on Sunday.

Martinez said the country was close to fully meeting its target and complying with an agreement reached in November with members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers, according to news reaching here from Vienna.

Martinez described Venezuela's compliance with the cutback agreement as "quite high," and announced it would reach "100 percent of the target by February."

The minister make the remarks while speaking with Venezuelan media in Vienna, where he was attending an OPEC meeting on compliance with a measure designed to shore up oil prices.

Martinez celebrated the success of the measure, saying "we have seen a nearly 20-percent increase, positively reflected in the average rise in prices to some 50 (U.S.) dollars a barrel."

Producers are to meet again on March 17 to review the progress of the measure, said Martinez, while OPEC expects to hold its first conference in May.

A special committee was set up to meet monthly to monitor compliance with the cutback by the 13 OPEC members and 11 non-members, includes Venezuela, Nigeria, Kuwait, Oman, Russia and Saudi Arabia, he said.

Venezuela, whose economy was devastated by plummeting oil prices in the past two years, was one of the main proponents of the agreement to reduce the oil output. Endi