Putin and Bin Salman in favour of complying with OPEC+ agreement to reduce supply

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and Russia's President Vladimir Putin agreed on the need to continue complying with the OPEC+ agreements to reduce the supply of crude oil, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Wednesday. 

Putin and Bin Salman held a telephone conversation in which they "reviewed the conditions of the global oil market and the efforts made to maintain the stability and balance that promote the growth of the global economy", the source indicated. 

The conversation between Bin Salman and Putin comes just after OPEC announced on Tuesday that it was keeping its estimates of global oil demand for 2020 and 2021 virtually unchanged. 

The leaders of the two countries that waged a price war in March which, together with the first effects of the COVID-19, plunged the value of crude oil on the world market, now consider it necessary for all OPEC+ members to continue to comply with the agreement signed last April. OPEC+ then reached an agreement with other partner countries to stabilise world oil prices and production. 

The agreement provided for a reduction in production by initially lowering 9.7 million barrels per day (mbd) of crude oil, about 10% of world supply, until 31 July, to underpin oil prices. 

In the second phase, which runs from 1 August to the end of the year, the group has reduced the cut to 7.7 mbd, which represents an official increase in supply of 2 mbd. 

OPEC+ was set up in 2016 by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), whose largest exporter is Saudi Arabia, and 10 independent producers, including Russia.