Members ofthe Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC), during their175th meeting in Vienna on Thursday, agreed to cut their oil output by 800,000barrels per day in the first half of 2019.

Iran, Libyaand Venezuela, given their exceptional conditions, are exempted from theagreement to cut their crude oil output.

IranianMinister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh, upon arrival in Vienna and even beforethat, had repeatedly insisted that Iran should be exempted from any decision tocut OPEC production because of the US sanctions.

Before OPECMeeting, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy Industry and Mineral ResourcesKhalid al-Falih has stressed the need for the cooperation of all OPEC membersto strike an output cut agreement.

The fifthjoint meeting of OPEC and non- OPEC producers will be held on Friday, December 7at OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, with 14 OPEC members and 10 non- OPEC producers.

Sources haveconfirmed that Russia and other non- OPEC producers will contribute to theproduction reduction by at least 400,000 b/d for improving oil prices in themarket.

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