SAUDI Arabia and Russia – two of the world’s largest producers of oil- reviewed their bilateral relations and talked about prospects for building stronger ties.
In a recent phone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged points of view with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud regarding several topics of common interest.
According to Kremlin, both sides have expressed satisfaction with the level of coordination at OPEC Plus aimed at ensuring global oil market stability.
OPEC Plus which stands for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is a group of 23 oil-exporting countries that meets regularly to decide how much crude oil to sell on the world market.
Geopolitical events among OPEC countries can influence the global oil market while Western leaders have long criticized their power to raise oil prices.
On April 2, OPEC heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, and Kuwait, together with Algeria and Gabon, as well as non-OPEC states Oman and Kazakhstan, announced an additional oil production cut of 1.16 million barrels per day.
The figure was on top of Russia’s pledge to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day which was extended until the end of the year.
The surprise announcement shocked markets and once again drew criticism from the United States.
The Saudi Crown Prince and the Russian leader also discussed prospects for cooperation between Saudi Arabia and BRICS- an acronym for the powerful grouping of the world’s leading emerging market economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Nearly two dozen countries, mostly in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia as well as South America have expressed interest to join the BRICS club in recent years.
As OPEC Plus partners, Saudi Arabia and Russia have regularly discussed oil production deals in telephone calls during the past six years.
