The OPEC+ alliance is optimistic that it will be able to gradually ease production cuts from January as planned, despite surging coronavirus cases in many countries, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an article published on Wednesday. OPEC and its partners led by Russia agreed in April to reduce their combined oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day in response to the demand slump following the outbreak of coronavirus that caused prices to tank. The cuts were relaxed by 2 million bpd starting in August and are set to be eased by another 2 million bpd from January 2021. “Currently, despite the second wave of the pandemic in a number of countries, my colleagues and I continue to be optimistic and expect we can gradually raise production as per the agreement without harming the market,” Novak said in the article in the energy ministry’s magazine Energy Policy. […]