Iraq's Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi announces oil output cut of 160K bpd under OPEC production cut deal. Luaibi said that Iraq hopes to cut its output by 210kbpd by end of month, Bloomberg reported.

Luaibi had confirmed last week that Iraq has begun implementing measures to reduce national oil output in keeping with an OPEC decision. Separately, Kazakhstan also slashed its oil output by 20k bpd to fall in line with the OPEC deal.

OPEC agreed in November to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 2017 to support prices. Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, agreed to reduce output by 200,000 bpd to 4.351 million bpd.

Iraq had resisted production cuts, saying it needed revenue to fund a war against Islamic State militants. Luaibi had said last week that Iraq is reviewing several options to implement the reduction, including cuts from Kirkuk oilfield, southern fields being developed by oil majors or other state-run areas.

OPEC ministers are holding a meeting in Abu Dhabi this Friday, OPEC’s Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said. Oil futures on NYMEX edge higher as investors digest oil output cut reports from Iraq and Kazakhstan.