Oil Rises As OPEC Extends Cuts To End Of 2018

He said the important question is country-level compliance. "I think that's where market attention will focus, because you're trying to get a market into balance," Haworth said.

Market watchers said they would look closely at output from countries like Iran, Libya and Russia.

"It will be hard to keep the Russian oil companies in the fold, if shale producers continue to make increased sales to Asia as well," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital.

Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said he sees his country's production flat at 547 million tonnes in 2018 if the output cuts are maintained for the whole year.

One of OPEC's biggest problems while cutting supplies has been rising U.S. output, which is gaining global market share and undermining the group's efforts to tighten the market.

U.S. oil production <C-OUT-T-EIA> hit a new record of 9.68 million bpd last week, according to government data released on Wednesday.

That is up from 8.5 million bpd at the end of last year, before the cuts were implemented.

"If producers in the U.S. increase their rig count over the next few months due to higher prices then I expect another price collapse by the end of 2018," said Scott Sheffield, executive chairman of Pioneer Natural Resources, one of the largest producers in the Permian, the biggest U.S. oilfield.

(Reporting by Polina Ivanova in London and OPEC Team; Editing by Andrew Hay and Chris Reese)

Copyright 2017 Thomson Reuters.