Saudi Arabia hopes to be able to work out an agreement with OPEC+, which includes Russia, despite sanctions pressure, the kingdom's Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, said in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday.
According to the newspaper, Riyadh hopes "to work out an agreement with OPEC+ <...> which will include Russia". At the same time the minister stressed that the world should assess the importance of such an alliance of producers.
The head of the ministry noted that in the current environment, it is too early to say exactly what a new agreement might look like, given the general uncertainty prevailing in the markets, but added that OPEC+ would be able to increase production "if there is demand." "The whole world has lost about 4 million barrels of refining capacity in the last three years, 2.7 million of that just with the start of the coronavirus," he said, commenting on rising fuel prices, and added that the determining factor in the market is refinery capacity and how quickly it will be unlocked.
The energy minister noted that policy should be decoupled from OPEC+ and that an alliance would be needed in the future to make "orderly adjustments" amid uncertainties related to global challenges such as coronavirus restrictions and supply chain problems.
The OPEC+ agreement was negotiated in late 2016 and has been in effect since 2017. As of May 2020, the agreement is working in an updated form and will remain in effect until the end of 2022. Ministers of the countries participating in the agreement determine oil production levels for the near future at regular meetings. The largest members of OPEC+ are Russia and Saudi Arabia, which together account for half of all production in the alliance.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS