Photo taken on June 2, 2017 shows the well drilling field of the Udmurtia Petroleum Corp project in Udmurtia, a republic in western Russia. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)
Novak said that Russia and the OPEC have agreed to hold regular meetings in May and June to assess the market situation.
Russia can increase oil output by 200,000-300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the short term and by up to 500,000 bpd in the future to deal with a prices slump, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday.
"Our task now is to respond promptly to the situation in the market in order to mitigate most of the consequences and keep monitoring," Novak said.
Oil prices started falling dramatically after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major producers, including Russia, failed in Vienna on Friday to agree on an extension of an output cut deal, which expires at the end of the month.
At the Vienna meeting, Russia and some non-OPEC countries proposed to extend the existing agreement on a cut of 1.7 million bpd for at least one quarter and monitor the market before taking further steps, Novak said.
However, the OPEC, primarily Saudi Arabia, proposed increasing the cut by another 1.5 million bpd from April 1 to the end of 2020, to which Russia did not agree, saying its own option could allow "leveling out significant fluctuations on the market," according to Novak.
"Doors are not closed. The fact that the output cut agreement was not extended from April 1 does not mean that we cannot continue to cooperate with OPEC and non-OPEC countries," Novak said.
He said that the OPEC+ deal, which has been implemented for three years, has shown its effectiveness, allowing Russia to earn an additional 10 trillion rubles (around 140 billion U.S. dollars).
He said that Russia and the OPEC have agreed to hold regular meetings in May and June to assess the market situation.
Editor:Cherie
