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Russia agrees with Saudi to extend OPEC deal by 6-9 months - Putin

June 29, 2019 at 2:00 pm

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (1st row 4th L), US President Donald Trump (1st row 5th L), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (1st row R), Chinese President Xi Jinping (1st row 4th R), French President Emmanuel Macron (1st row 2nd L), Russian President Vladimir Putin (1st row 5th R), Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Salman (1st row 6th L), Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (2nd row R), Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe (1st row 7th L), British Prime Minister Theresa May (2nd row 5th L), Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez (2nd row L) and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde (3rd row 4th R) pose for the family photo on the first day of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on 28 June 2019. [Metin Aktas – Anadolu Agency]

Russia has agreed with Saudi Arabia to extend by six to nine months a deal with OPEC on reducing oil production, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, Reuters reports.

Putin, speaking after talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told a news conference the deal would be extended in its current form and with the same volumes.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers, an alliance known as OPEC+, meet on July 1-2 to discuss the deal that involves curbing oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). The pact expires after June 30.

“We will support the extension, both Russia and Saudi Arabia. As far as the length of the extension is concerned, we have yet to decide whether it will be six or nine months. Maybe it will be nine months,” said Putin said, who met the crown prince on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Japan.

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A nine-month extension would mean the deal runs out in March 2020.

Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of Russian Direct Investment Fund who helped design the OPEC-Russia deal, said the pact in place since 2017 has already lifted Russian budget revenues by more than 7 trillion roubles ($110 billion).

“The strategic partnership within OPEC+ has led to the stabilisation of oil markets and allows both to reduce and increase production depending on the market demand conditions, which contributes to the predictability and growth of investments in the industry,” Dmitriev said.

Benchmark Brent has climbed more than 25 percent since the start of the 2019. But prices could stall as a slowing global economy squeezes demand and US crude floods the market, a Reuters poll of analysts found.