OPEC focused on stabilizing oil market, not deepening production cuts – Congo’s minister

 The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is mainly concerned with ensuring that the output freeze deal helps stabilize the oil market, rather than with increasing the cuts.

The Minister of Hydrocarbons of the Republic of the Congo, Jean-Marc Thystere Tchicaya, told Sputnik on Monday ahead of the OPEC meeting.

“At the moment, the main issue is not how much we are going to reduce, more or not, the issue is that we need to respect our conformity level collectively to stabilize the oil market,” the minister said.

“The declaration of cooperation works very well so far. The sense is that we should continue the same way,” he added.

According to the minister, a charter for long-term cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC countries is on the agenda.

“It’s on the agenda, so we think we will discuss the charter of long-term cooperation … We are still working on it,” the minister said, asked if the charter could be signed during the next two days.