Saudi Arabia Has No Plans to Negotiate Oil Production Cut with Russia

The authorities of Saudi Arabia do not plan to hold talks with Russia regarding oil production cut, Saudi daily Al-Iktisadiya reported on Friday. "The announcement made yesterday [on Thursday] by the Energy Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak about Saudi proposal to reduce production is incorrect," a source in the oil sector told the newspaper. According to the source, other member-states of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Algeria and Venezuela started making such proposals around a year ago. On Wednesday Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev said that Saudi Arabia had come forward with the initiative to discuss a possible reduction of oil production in the framework of the OPEC in the near future. On Thursday Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak confirmed the information, saying that the issue is about global reduction of oil output by 5%.

(http://tass.ru/en/economy/853004)