Algeria has slashed oil production by 71,000 barrels per day to honour a OPEC decision to reduce global daily output by 1.5 million, the APS news agency reported Tuesday.

`The energy ministry told Sonatrach (the state-owned energy company) to cut gross national production by 71,000 barrels per day (bpd) beginning November 1,` a government source told APS.

Algeria produced as many as 1.45 million bpd before the energy ministry implemented the cuts.

OPEC said last month it would reduce production to halt the slide in the price of a barrel of oil, which has lost half its value since July from a record high of more than 147 dollars (115 euros).

The 13-member cartel`s global production per day will now be reduced to 27.3 million bpd.

Algerian Energy Minister and current head of the cartel Chakib Khelil said Sunday that this decision `will take a long time to take hold` because the demand for oil has still not reached OPEC`s revised production level.`

OPEC`s member states together produce about 40 percent of the world`s oil. The cartel will hold its next output meeting on December 17 in Oran, west Algeria.