Report: Malaysia boosts oil production

Analysts had been skeptical about the project's prospects given current low gas prices and constraints facing state-run Petronas, which has been cutting costs to deal with lower profits and cash flow.

DUBAI/LONDON: OPEC and non-OPEC officials were holding a second day of meetings in Abu Dhabi to discuss ways to boost compliance with their oil output-cutting pact, sources familiar with the talks said.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers are cutting production by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until March 2018 to get rid of a glut and support prices.

In Abu Dhabi, a panel comprising Russia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, plus officials from OPEC's Vienna headquarters, has met individually with officials from Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, one of the sources said.

A statement on the compliance-boosting effort is being drafted and will probably be issued after the meeting concludes on Tuesday, two sources said.

Major OPEC producers Iraq and the UAE have shown relatively low compliance with the deal based on figures OPEC uses to monitor its supply. Non-OPEC Kazakhstan and Malaysia have been boosting output in the last few months, according to the International Energy Agency.

At a meeting held in Russia last month, both OPEC countries confirmed their commitment to the pact but offered no concrete plan on how to meet their production targets, sources said.

Iraq and the UAE say the assessment of their production by secondary sources - figures from government agencies, consultants and industry media that OPEC uses to monitor its output - before the pact took effect in January was too low.

They argue that as a result, the two countries have the unpalatable task of making an even bigger cut to comply fully. - Reuters