Saudi Arabia hopes OPEC and its allies will ease production curbs next year and create a permanent framework to maintain stabilized oil markets after the current supply cut deal ends this year, oil minister Khalid al-Falih said on Saturday. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is reducing output by about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) as part of a deal with non-OPEC producers. The pact began in January 2017 and will continue until the end of 2018. Falih said OPEC and its allies were committed to bringing balance and stability to the market and that he hoped it would be possible to ease output curbs next year. “A study is taking place and once we know exactly what balancing the market will entail we will announce what is the next step. The next step may be easing of the production constraints,” he told reporters in New Delhi. Falih said OPEC was determined to translate the success of the deal to curb supply into a permanent framework with other major producers. “I think everybody has learnt, producers as well as consumers, that a market without a steering wheel is very destructive, very damaging to the interests of all,” he said. Falih described the compliance with the output cuts in January as “exceptional.” Falih said the market had absorbed rising US shale oil production, as output from countries such as Venezuela and Mexico had declined. Aramco signed a preliminary deal to invest in India’s planned 1.2 million bpd West Coast refinery. Falih said Aramco was also looking at buying stakes in existing major refiners and expansion projects in India. He did not specify the size of stake Aramco will take in the west coast refinery, but added “the more the better.” India aims to expand its refining capacity by 77 percent to about 8.8 million bpd by 2030. Falih said Saudi Arabia would also sign oil supply deals as part of the agreement to buy stakes in Indian refineries. Last year, Saudi Arabia pledged billions of dollars of investments in projects in Indonesia and Malaysia to secure long-term oil supply deals. Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Friday India is seeking a reasonable price for crude oil from Saudi Arabia, in a move that could help Riyadh regain top spot in supplying the worlds third largest oil consumer. "Some instrument can be developed so that the pricing is suitable for both of us," Pradhan said after a meeting with Falih. In an attempt to attract Saudi investments, Pradhan stated that India offered Saudi Arabia a stake in the country’s future strategic oil reserves. "The way we have done an arrangement with ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) for storage facility, the same way we are discussing with (Saudi) Aramco," Pradhan said. India and Saudi Arabia also discussed investment opportunities in a proposed oil refinery on the west coast of India with a capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day and a petrochemicals project in the southern city of Kakinada, Pradhan added. Meanwhile, CNBC reported China’s top state energy company is aiming to boost its annual crude oil production in the Middle East region by 10.8 million tonnes from its key operations in Abu Dhabi, Iraq and Iran. CNPC said in a statement its Middle East operations were pumping at a total daily rate of 4.07 million barrels, without giving further details. It added that the company is set to start production at phase three of Halfaya project in Iraq in the third quarter of 2018 without giving a target production number. CNPC completed repair works at Iran’s Masjed Suleiman oil project and is set to start commercial production at the aging oilfield. The three projects will add annual output capacity by 10.8 million tonnes a year, or about 216,000 bpd. In early last year, CNPC secured 8 percent in the giant onshore concession in Abu Dhabi operated by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations (ADCO).