VIENNA: UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mazrouei said Friday that Iran, Libya and Venezuela were the only three countries to receive exemptions from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers agreement on oil production curtailment.
"Some countries with special circumstances will be given exemptions from the participation [in oil production cuts], which means the percentage that we will distribute among us [OPEC] in terms of a cut will be higher than the average for everyone.
These countries are Iran and Venezuela because of the sanctions, and Libya because of the fact that they are unfortunately on and off [in terms of oil production] due to the situation in [the country].
These are the only three countries that have been given [exemptions]," the minister said.