Putin Discusses OPEC Production With Saudi Crown Prince

The Russian President Vladimir Putin held discussions with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman Al Saud on Thursday (March 13) following the US bilateral talks with Ukraine which the Prince hosted. In addition to no doubt discussing the content of the talks, the two also discussed collaboration within the OPEC+ platform, which regulates oil supply and prices. This could imply that some issues as concerns Russian supplies onto the international markets could shortly be changing.

A statement issued afterwards said that current issues in “Russian-Saudi cooperation in ensuring the stability of the global oil market were discussed, in order to maintain a balance between supply and demand in the interests of both producers and consumers.”

OPEC+ is a loosely affiliated entity consisting of 12 OPEC members and 10 of the world’s major non-OPEC oil-exporting nations. OPEC+ aims to regulate the supply of oil to set the price on the world market. OPEC includes Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Indonesia, while OPEC+ adds Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan and South Sudan.

Neither the United States nor the European Union are involved in OPEC or OPEC+.