Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman hailed a new period of close relations at talks in Moscow after the world’s biggest oil exporters reached a deal to prolong supply cuts for another nine months.
The agreement to curb oil production is very significant and “our coordinated actions helped stabilise the situation on the world hydrocarbons market,” Putin said Tuesday at the Kremlin meeting, where he repeated an invitation for Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz to make his first visit to Russia. “We’re grateful to you for the idea and for working together on joint actions between Opec countries and [non-Opec] countries,” he said.
Saudi-Russian ties are going through one of their best periods and the production agreement provides a “solid” foundation for the oil market and energy prices, as well as “good opportunities to build a long-term strategic future,” said Prince Mohammad, who met Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in China in September.
While they’re on opposite sides of the six-year Syrian civil war, with Russia and Iran backing Syrian President Bashar Al Assad against rebels supported by Saudi Arabia and other allies, cooperation between the crude producers has proven key to an accord aimed at propping up global oil prices.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners on Thursday agreed to extend last year’s landmark deal, which has failed to eliminate global oversupply or achieve a sustained price recovery in the past six months. Saudi Arabia quickly delivered a cut of 600,000 barrels per day, exceeding its pledge. Russia cut half that amount gradually, in line with its commitment.
