OPEC secretary general personally discusses excess oil production with Iraqi, Kazakh prime ministers

MOSCOW. Aug 30 (Interfax) - OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais has held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani a few days after meeting with Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, the alliance said in a statement.

The meetings took place against the backdrop of the countries continuing to exceed their OPEC+ oil production quotas. OPEC had said Iraq and Kazakhstan exceeded their quotas by 1.44 million and 699,000 barrels per day, respectively, in January-July.

OPEC said the visits by Al Ghais were a success. Both countries reaffirmed their unconditional commitment to the full and timely implementation of production adjustments, it said.

OPEC said that in the follow-up to these official visits, both Iraq and Kazakhstan held separate videoconference calls with the secondary sources, in which both countries renewed their commitment to production adjustments and shared detailed plans to adjust production, as part of their efforts to attend to the compensation plans submitted earlier to the OPEC Secretariat.

According to their compensation schedules, Iraq should reduce oil production by an additional 95,000 bpd and Kazakhstan by 49,000 bpd in September. The overall OPEC+ quota for the coming month provides for a marginal increase in oil production, by 16,000 bpd to 35.49 million bpd.