OPEC and its partners may not need to extend the November 2016 crude oil production cut agreement beyond its March 2018 deadline if everyone fully complies with their quotas, Kuwait’s Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouk told media yesterday. Al-Marzouk noted that OPEC’s compliance rate had hit 116 percent, without adding, however, that this figure referred to August production specifically, while the September data from OPEC’s secondary sources revealed that compliance had fallen, with seven OPEC members pumping more in September than they did in August and three—Iraq, Iran and Gabon—producing above their quotas . The Kuwaiti minister, who leads the ministerial committee that monitors compliance with the deal, went on to add that the top priority for the cartel right now was to make all members stick to their quotas in order to render redundant another extension of the deal. He said OPEC will decide on whether to extend or […]