Mexico to cut oil output by 100,000 bpd from May: officials

MEXICO CITY: Mexico will reduce its oil output by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) from May after top oil producers collectively agreed to cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day at OPEC+ talks, Mexican officials said on Sunday.

Mexican Energy Minister Rocio Nahle said on Twitter the agreement to cut output by 9.7 million bpd had been reached unanimously in the OPEC+ group of countries, but she did not mention what Mexico’s share in the reduction would be.

Mexico had previously pledged to cut output by 100,000 bpd, and two officials confirmed it was sticking to that target.

The OPEC+ group had asked Mexico to decrease production by 400,000 bpd but President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s unwillingness to meet that demand held up oil producers’ approval of the historic cuts.

On Sunday, the Azeri energy ministry said the United States will compensate for Mexico by cutting output by another 300,000 bpd. That was 50,000 bpd more than Lopez Obrador and U.S. President Donald Trump had previously agreed on.

One of the two Mexican officials confirmed the Azeri ministry’s announcement that the United States would take responsibility for 300,000 bpd in cuts for Mexico.

Separately, Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard congratulated Nahle for “defending Mexico’s interests”, saying on Twitter that Lopez Obrador’s strategy had “worked”.