* OPEC+ must shift strategy as demand returns - Novak
* Russia sees demand bottoming out after 20%-30% dive
* Russia to meet OPEC+ quotas for cuts - Interfax
* Oil output seen down by 15% over 2020 - Novak
(Adds details, quotes, releads)
By Vladimir Soldatkin, Maria Kiselyova and Ludmila
Zaramenskikh
MOSCOW, April 29 (Reuters) - The alliance of OPEC, Russia
and other oil producers, known as OPEC+, should focus on the
global market share for the group's crude once demand starts
recovering from the coronavirus crisis, Moscow said on
Wednesday.
OPEC+, set up in 2016, has worked to support prices by
cutting output. But Russia and others have long complained that
this has mainly benefited U.S. producers which have ramped up
output and snatched market share.
Russia and OPEC member Saudi Arabia spearheaded the latest
efforts by OPEC+ to cut production by the equivalent of 10% of
global supplies from May 1 in a bid lift prices as demand for
crude plunged by as much 30% due to global lockdowns.
The deal seeks to reduce a glut of oil that is struggling to
find a home as global storage facilities rapidly fill.
Riyadh, Moscow and other OPEC+ members have also pushed for
curbs from other producers, particularly the United States.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that, once
demand returned, OPEC+ should shift strategy and focus on the
group's market share to evaluate how effective its actions were.
OPEC+ now has commercial oil inventories as a main focus.
"Stocks, supply and demand balance should be closely
followed but it makes sense to switch to targeting market share
which belongs to OPEC+ given increase in global demand," Novak
told Interfax news agency when asked if the group should shift
its focus from the stockpiles to market share.
Oil demand had been expected to rise in 2020 until the
coronavirus sent the market into reverse. But demand could start
picking up as the United States, China, European nations and
others start easing lockdown measures.
Russia has long complained that the main beneficiary of
previous OPEC+ cuts was the United States, which became the
world's biggest oil producer, surpassing Russia and Saudi
Arabia, as shale output surged and filled the gap left by OPEC+.
But oil prices in the latest crisis have plunged well below
breakeven for many U.S. shale producers, driving down output.
OPEC+ producers have typically produced about half of global
needs, with the rest coming from others, including the United
States. OPEC+ has said it wants its move to cut output by 9.7
million barrels per day (bpd) matched by non-OPEC+, so a total
of almost 20 million bpd is removed from the market.
RUSSIA'S CUTS
Russia believes global demand has already hit a floor, after
dropping by 20 million to 30 million bpd.
Russia will be cutting nearly 2 million bpd in oil
production, or 19% from February levels, Novak told Interfax,
with no companies exempted, including foreign oil companies
which clinched production-sharing agreements in the 1990s.
Oil companies plan to target mainly mature oil fields and
halt wells for maintenance, so they can resume quickly and
possibly with better flows, sources have said.
Russia has cut domestic and export sales of light oil
produced in western Siberia, its top oil province, energy
industry sources said on Wednesday.
"Looks like oil companies took production cuts seriously -
we are getting nearly 19% less (of usual supplies in May)," one
of the traders working at Russia's domestic market said.
Moscow would meet its commitments in full, Novak told
Interfax, as Russian oil output was projected to fall by up to
15% to between 480 million and 500 million tonnes (9.6
million-10 million bpd) this year, its first annual decline
since 2008.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova, Vladimir Soldatkin, Ludmila
Zaramenskikh and Olga Yagova; Writing by Katya Golubkova;
Editing by David Goodman and Edmund Blair)
