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Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that OPEC+, the group of leading oil producers, remains an efficient tool for coordination on global oil markets.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other large oil producers led by Russia have been seeking to cordinate their actions on world oil markets since 2016.
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers earlier this month announced further oil output cuts of more than one million barrels per day after crude prices fell in March towards $70 a barrel, the lowest in 15 months.
Novak said the group was not regulating oil prices but rather was closely watching the balance of supply and demand.
“We do not say that we regulate prices. It is very important that we are talking about the need for a balance of interests between exporters and consumers,” Novak told an event in Moscow.
He added that if OPEC+ had sought to increase crude prices this would have played into the hands of producers supplying cheaper oil.
“Therefore, it is a question of competition, a question of how to work in the market, balancing between other competitive energy sources and ensuring the stable operation of the industry,” he said.
Novak also said that the Russian energy sector, a key source of state budget revenues, had successfully coped with severe Western sanctions, imposed on it after Moscow launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
He said that around a fifth of Russia’s total oil exports had been rerouted from Europe to other markets, mainly India and China. Russia has also cut around a third of gas supplies to the European Union.
