KUWAIT (Reuters) - October's production levels will be the reference point for oil output cuts for most OPEC and non-OPEC producers that agreed on cuts earlier this month, the UAE's energy minister said on Sunday.
September levels will be the reference point for a few of the producers, said Suhail al-Mazrouei at a news conference at the meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Companies in Kuwait.
Libya, Iran and Venezuela are exempt from the production cuts, he said, adding that he expected their production to fall rather than rise.
Mazrouei said the OPEC and non-OPEC producers aim to return the oil market balance to return to summer 2018 levels in the first quarter of 2019.
Shale oil producers were the first to suffer from the fall in oil prices he said, as shale oil production slowed.
(Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy, Writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
