(Bloomberg) -- Discussions between leaders at the Group of 20 Summit in Japan will clarify uncertainties about the direction of the oil market before the OPEC+ meeting next week, said Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak.
“We hope that there will be more clarity and more visibility after the G-20 summit,” Novak told reporters when asked if he expects an extension of the OPEC+ cuts at the meeting in Vienna. “We hope that decisions to be taken will help shed some light” on the future of the oil market.
While the G-20 leaders’ summits traditionally focus on a wider range of issues from geopolitics to climate change, recent meetings have also set the stage for policy decisions from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. In December, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman used the event in Buenos Aires to agree on extending their output agreement, days before their oil ministers met.
This year, Putin and Prince Mohammed have scheduled a meeting on the G-20 sidelines again, with oil-market issues on their agenda, according to the Kremlin. Novak also plans talks with his Saudi counterpart Khalid Al-Falih in Osaka. The Russian president’s statement after his meeting with the Saudi royal may give an insight into his country’s position on the potential roll-over of the OPEC+ cuts again.
So far, Russia has been sticking to a wait-and-see approach regarding the future of the deal, in contrast to the position of Saudi Arabia’s strong advocacy of an extension. The idea of a roll-over has faced opposition from Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft PJSC, which argues that the agreement reduces the nation’s share in the global oil market.
Positions of Russian oil producers and the government are “always consolidated,” Novak said in Osaka on Friday, according to Russian news agency Interfax. On Wednesday, Putin gathered Russian oil executives to discuss the future of the OPEC+ agreement, Putin said in an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday. The companies “take a comprehensive view of the situation,” not focusing only on production growth, the president said.
When asked by FT if OPEC+ will extend the deal, Putin said: “You will find this out in the next few days.”
