OIL-PRODUCING countries — members and non-members of the OPEC group — agreed at the weekend in Vienna to share increased oil production after OPEC announced it would pump more crude oil.

Russia and other oil-producing allies endorsed an output increase of 1 million barrels a day.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said all producers involved had "decided that countries will strive to adhere to the overall conformity level, voluntarily adjusted to 100 per cent."

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said the exact allocation for each country would depend among other things on their production capacities.

"Saudi Arabia obviously can deliver as much as the market would need, but we're going to be respectful of the 1 million barrel cap and at the same time be respectful of allocating some of that to countries that deliver it," he said.

US President Donald Trump had been calling publicly for the cartel to help lower prices by producing more and Trump tweeted after the Opec announcement: "Hope OPEC will increase output substantially. Need to keep prices down!"

Mr al-Falih said that Mr Trump’s tweets were "reflective of his concern for American consumers."

He added that leaders from other countries, including India, China and South Korea, had expressed concerns to him that their economies were "starting to feel the pinch of higher oil prices."

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow’s position was based on "fundamental principles, on research done by our teams, by teams of our friends and colleagues, the OPEC secretariat."

Referring to President Trump, he added: “Twitter is not one of the instruments we base our decisions on.”

Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia Carlos Rafael Faria Tortos announced that Caracas would support the deal, explaining: "Our government and the president are ready to support the decision that will ensure a good price for oil, not only for Venezuela but for all producers.

"Of course, we will support those decisions in line with the situation when prices are not falling and are not going too high either, because this is also not the best situation for oil producers.”