Comply With Agreement Reached in Geneva : Some OPEC Members Cut Production

Production cutbacks were reported in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and some other OPEC members Monday in compliance with an agreement by the oil cartel to reduce output as a means of driving up prices.

The authoritative weekly Middle East Economic Survey said Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil exporter, had reached an agreement with its customers on reducing production from the August levels of about 5.5 million barrels a day to the new quota of 4.35 barrels.

Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC had abandoned quotas for the 13 member-nations, which aggravated an existing oil glut and drove prices down to around $10 a barrel, less than one-third the levels of late last year.

According to the report by the weekly, which is based in Nicosia, Saudi Arabia is expected to pump less than the allowed 4.35 million barrels a day in September and October, the period in which the cutbacks are to be made.

Agreed to Cut Output

All members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries except Iraq agreed to reduce output in those two months to the 16.1 million barrels a day that the cartel produced in October, 1984. That would be more than 3 million barrels a day less than the combined production in July.

Kuwait said Monday that it had reduced production by 44% to 900,000 barrels from 1.6 million barrels a day. Mansour Freih of the state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. added that Kuwait will not tolerate non-compliance by other members.

“Any such violation will mean the accord, reached by OPEC oil ministers on Aug. 5, will become null and void,” he said in a statement carried by the official Kuwait News Agency.

Kuwait was the first member-country to endorse an Iranian proposal for cutbacks at the OPEC ministerial conference in Geneva.

The news agency said Algeria and Indonesia also had reduced output. Abu Dhabi, the leading oil producer in the United Arab Emirates, announced its plans to do so last week.

Crude oil from the North Sea Brent field, regarded by the industry as a benchmark, was quoted Monday at around $14.50 a barrel.