Russia

Putin to Hold Meeting on Energy Markets Later on Friday

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting on the global energy markets with cabinet leadership, the presidential administration, and heads of the largest oil companies on Friday, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Sputnik
"Later in the day, he [the president] has one more important event planned. This is a meeting on the situation on the global energy markets. In fact, it will be the same format that happened before the president left for a regional trip, before the OPEC+ deal was derailed. Today, Putin will ... meet with the government leadership, the presidential administration, industry managers and our key oil companies, the heads of our largest oil companies," Peskov told reporters.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia reportedly called for an urgent meeting of OPEC+ producers to discuss ways to stabilise the oil markets. 

This came after US President Donald Trump tweeted that he expected Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut oil production by 10-15 million barrels per day. 

Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that there was no need for the country to boost oil production. He said that only oil demand growth could change the situation in the market, while production cuts cannot compensate for the decreased demand that was caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Oil market volatility has increased sharply after the OPEC+ alliance failed to agree on production cuts last month and also due to the economic slowdown linked to the coronavirus pandemic. 

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