Putin: Russia, Saudi agreed to keep oil production low

Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to extend an agreement on cutting their respective oil outputs to prevent crude prices from slumping further.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had come to the arrangement following talks during the Group of 20 countries’ summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“Yes, we have an agreement to prolong our accords,” Putin told reporters on the summit’s sidelines.

“There is no final deal on volumes, but we together with Saudi Arabia will do it. And whatever is the final figure, we agreed to monitor the market situation and react to it quickly,” he noted.

Russia is the most prolific oil producer outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Saudi Arabia is the biggest producer.

Moscow has been cooperating with the body for years to engineer a rebound after the prices sank in 2014 due to oversupplying of the market.

Though steadily facing the threat of decline, the prices have almost stabilized at around $60 per barrel.

Two weeks earlier, Putin had said he favored a level of $70 per barrel for Russia. On Wednesday, however, he told an investment conference in Moscow that the current prices were “absolutely fine” for his country. He also praised bin Salman for what he described as the success of the agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers.

Putin says favors oil at $60 per barrel

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says current oil prices around $60 a barrel are “absolutely fine” for his country.

This is while the United States, which renewed its oil sanctions against major producer Iran last month, has been pressing other producers – particularly Saudi Arabia – to speed up production to stabilize the market.

The OPEC, Russia, and other big producers will meet in Vienna on December 6-7 to discuss further steps concerning the situation governing the oil market.