Shafaq News/ Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday that oil production should be restored in line with rising demand, but the rise in output should not result in oversupply.

He also said that the recovery of global oil markets was happening slower than earlier expected and could take two to three years.

Novak added the series of bans on travel to Britain after the detection of a new coronavirus strain was having an impact on the price of oil.

The new variant of Corona which scientists said was 40%-70% more transmissible, is rapidly become the dominant strain in parts of southern England, including London.

“Russia and Saudi Arabia are committed to the OPEC+ deal on oil output cuts and will be monitoring the situation” he confirmed.

The renewed OPEC+ deal has been in effect since May 2020. In April, OPEC and its oil-producing allies agreed on oil output cuts by 9.7 million barrels per day, which is an unprecedented amount of all time.

Since August, the cuts were reduced to 7.7 million barrels per day. In January 2021, crude production will be increased, but gradually. The alliance agreed to boost oil production by 0.5 million barrels per day each month.