Novak adds, he does not change his forecast for Brent oil prices at $50-$60 per bbl in 2018
- Says supply and demand balance on oil market seen reached sometime during 2018
- Says consensus among oil ministers is that eventual exit from the deal should not lead to surplus
- Time would be needed to exit the (opec/non-opec) deal smoothly
- Detailed global oil cut deal talks seen as soon as market balance starts to emerge
- Says there is common understanding among ministers how the exit should be handled, declines to elaborate
- Says there is option of extending global oil output cuts deal beyond 2018 in case markets need to be further balanced
- However 2018 is the year when oil markets expected to balance
- Novak, asked on planned saudi aramco ipo in 2018, says oil cut deal and aramco's sale are not directly linked
- Novak praises relation between governments of russia and saudi arabia as well as russian and saudi companies
- Novak, in comments on kazakhstan's possible exceeding its quota, says we assume that all should stick to their commitments
- Sees global oil demand growth to slow down to 1.3 - 1.5 mln bpd in 2018 from 1.8 mln bpd in 2017
Reuters with the comments from Russian Energy Minister Al Novak. I bolded a couple re rebalancing in the market and implications for the output restriction deal currently in place.
