A return to the oil production levels that were in place in October 2016, high output that triggered the world’s major oil producers to sign a deal to curtail supply, is one of the options for easing supply constraints, Russia’s Energy minister Alexander Novak has said.

Saudi Arabia and Russia were reportedly discussing raising Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and non-Opec oil production by some 1 million barrels a day (b/d) to calm consumer worries about supply adequacy.

“When we extended the agreement until the end of 2018, we spoke about such possibilities (of returning to the October 2016 level),” Novak said at an economic forum in St Petersburg on 26 May.

“The moment is coming when we should consider assessing ways to exit the deal very seriously and gradually ease quotas on output cuts,” Novak said at the event.

“But a decision will be made in June,” he added, referring to the scheduled meeting of of Opec and non-Opec countries at the cartel’s headquarters in Vienna on 22-23 June.

Raising production would ease 17 months of strict supply curbs amid concerns that a price rally has gone too far, with oil having hit its highest since late 2014 at $80.50 a barrel this month.

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih has however said that any such move to increase collective output would be gradual so as not to shock the market.

The existing deal came into force on 1 January, 2017, and envisaged global oil producers reducing their combined output by 1.8 million b/d to cut bloated stockpiles and prop up oil prices. The pact was renewed in January this year to continue output cuts through 2018, but the inventory overhang is now near Opec’s target.

In April, pact participants cut production by 52 percent more than required, with falling output from crisis-hit Venezuela helping OPEC deliver a bigger reduction than intended.

Russia’s oil output reached a 30-year high of 11.247 million b/d in October 2016 and it pledged to cut it by 300,000 b/d to 10.947 million b/d. In March and April this year Moscow failed to fully comply with the deal, pumping an average of 10.97 million b/d, a 11-month high.

Novak was also quoted as saying on Saturday he expected Iran to reduce its output by no more than 10 per cent as a result of the move by the United States to withdraw from a nuclear deal and reinstate sanctions against Tehran.

“I think the output reduction will not be as significant as many expect,” Novak was quoted as saying by a Russian news agency when asked if he agreed with an estimate that the sanctions could remove as much as 800,000 b/d from the market. “Some 10 per cent is probably the maximum level,” he said.

Novak also estimated that the “geopolitical risk” impact to the oil price was around $5-$7 a barrel.