EMEA News
Output Deal "Close," Putin Tells Russia's Top Oil Execs
Russian President Vladimir Putin has informed his country's top state and private sector oil executives that energy minister Alexander Novak "is agreeing and practically has agreed with his partners in the global market" to cap oil output.
Putin, whose comments were published on the Kremlin website, also said, "as the minister has reported, you are all in agreement with this proposal.
"It's about us not ramping up oil production this year."
As with so much news involving the much-maligned output freeze, Putin's remarks raise more questions than provide answers, starting with which countries are supposedly Novak's partners: the cap, which was also proposed last month by Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Qatar in addition to Russia, is conditional on other producers agreeing to maintain output at January levels.
To date, Iran has rejected the cap, and Saudi Arabia has sent mixed signals about trying to balance the global oil market.
Tass news agency quoted Novak as saying the proposal Putin cited accounts for 73 percent of global production, but he didn't specify which countries he meant.
Novak said a decision to limit output will reportedly be made at a meeting in Russia this month.
Francisco Quintana, head of economic research at Asiya Investment, last week expressed doubt that any wide-ranging output agreement will be made, not only because of Iran's refusal to play ball, but also "because of the deteriorating relation between Saudi and Russia.
"But even if it happened, its impact in the market would be marginal."
