A meeting of the Opec countries and non-cartel countries, parties to the production cut agreement, is due in Kuwait on March 22-23, Russia's Minister of Energy Alexander Novak was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Tass on Saturday.

"The meeting will take place on March 22-23, a meeting of the technical council at the expert level will be in Vienna on February 21-22, the meeting of ministers - in Kuwait," he said.

A ministerial control committee was set up at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to monitor implementation of the agreements on crude production cuts sealed by Opec and non-Opec countries. The committee brings together five ministers: three are from Opec countries (Algeria, Kuwait and Venezuela) and two are from non-Opec countries (Russia and Oman).

On December 10, 2016, Opec and non-Opec countries signed an agreement on joint reduction of oil output at a meeting in Vienna. Moreover, 11 countries will join the announced cut by Opec members of 1.164 million barrels per day in the first half of 2017, and reduce crude production by another 558,000 barrels per day. Thus, the total crude production cut will amount to 1.7-1.8 million barrels per day, according to the Tass report.