Iraq says monitoring impact of China's virus on oil demand

Iraq, OPEC's second-biggest oil producer, is closely monitoring the impact of China's new coronavirus on global oil demand, particularly in Asia, Iraq Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters on Tuesday. Iraq supports any agreement that would stabilize the oil market and will work with OPEC and its allies, a group is known as OPEC+, to bring back the balance between oil supply and demand, Jihad said.

He also said that any decision by OPEC+ on whether there was a need to deepen the oil supply cuts or meet earlier than agreed, which in March, would be taken by all members based on the recommendations of an OPEC+ technical panel. The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the OPEC+ is meeting over Feb. 4-5 in Vienna to assess the impact on oil demand from the coronavirus.