U.A.E.'s Adnoc Will Cut Oil Sales to Buyers by 10% in June

(Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates is cutting back supplies to customers in June as part of its agreement with OPEC to curb production.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. will reduce sales by 10 percent, a company spokesman said Saturday by phone. The state-owned producer, known as Adnoc, cut supplies for May by 7 percent.

The U.A.E., the fourth-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, will exceed its commitment to OPEC’s production cuts, with maintenance scheduled on fields through May, Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said earlier in April. OPEC agreed to production limits for most of its members at a meeting in November, and brought 11 other nations on board in December. The U.A.E.’s average compliance with the agreement so far in 2017 is 51 percent, the International Energy Agency said in an April 13 report.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy and Industry Kahlid Al-Falih concluded on Saturday a tour of central Asian oil producing nations, including Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The nations along with Saudi Arabia agreed it’s important to abide by the agreement, Al-Falih said on his Twitter account.

Al-Falih is engaging with many OPEC members to achieve consensus before their next meeting in May, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

The 24 oil producers that agreed to cut production are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, Barkindo said in Paris on Thursday. The land-based inventory surplus in developed economies declined from February to March by about 39 million barrels, he said. There’s also been a rapid decline in the volume of oil stored at sea in tankers, said Amin Nasser, chief executive officer of Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mahmoud Habboush in Abu Dhabi at mhabboush@bloomberg.net, Wael Mahdi in Kuwait at wmahdi@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Amott at jamott@bloomberg.net, Claudia Carpenter