DUBAI/LONDON: The energy minister from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Tuesday that OPEC+ oil producers will stick to their plans to taper oil production cuts from January.

OPEC+ - producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and others including Russia - have been reducing output since January 2017, in a bid to balance the market, support prices and reduce inventories.

They are currently curbing production by 7.7 million barrels per day, down from 9.7 million bpd.

"It will be reduced again at the end of this year as we walk to 2021," Suhail al-Mazrouei told the Energy Intelligence Forum.

"We believe that this is the calculated volume to cater for the demand coming back."

OPEC+ is due to taper their production cuts by 2 million bpd in January.

Mazrouei said he was more optimistic about oil demand recovery than the International Energy Agency, which on Tuesday said that a slow global economy recovery from the pandemic could push a full rebound in energy demand out to 2025.

He said there have been signs of a recovery in oil demand as countries lift COVID-19 restrictions, noting China was back to almost 90pc to its pre-pandemic levels.