MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia saw no need for now for global oil producers to change their existing deal on global supply, but did not rule out extending deep oil cuts for longer if market conditions warranted.
His comments are the clearest signal yet from Russia, one of the world’s top oil producers, that it is ready to continue with unprecedented output cuts in the face of a sluggish oil market beset by the coronavirus pandemic and overproduction.
Russia is working with OPEC and other oil producing allies, in a group called OPEC+, to limit oil supplies to drain a glut in the market caused when global demand slumped due to coronavirus lockdowns. The producers are reducing combined production by 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd).
