The rumors of a coordinated production cut between OPEC and Russia continue to grow more serious. The latest comes from the Russian energy minister Alexander Novak, who insisted that Russia will hold talks with OPEC in February on a possible agreement to reduce output. “There are very many questions, on checking cuts, from what base to count from. In order to start working through these issues, we need general agreement, it’s too early to talk about that. That’s the subject of the meeting and discussion (in February),” Novak told reporters, according to TASS.
The headline figure: a 5 percent production cut across the board for all participants. That’s what Saudi Arabia floated last year. When asked if that was still on the table, Novak replied, “That is precisely the subject for debate.” The meeting could tentatively take place in February. It was originally proposed by Venezuela, which has pleaded for emergency measures to stabilize oil prices. Oil prices skyrocketed on Wednesday and Thursday after the comments from Novak. During intraday trading on January 28, prices shot up by more than 8 percent. By midday, WTI and Brent fell back a bit, but were still up more than 3 percent. That is the highest level since the first week of January.
Coordination on production cuts between OPEC and Russia has always been a long shot, and probably still remains an unlikely development. The big difference this time around, though, is Russia’s change in tone. Saudi Arabia had hinted at its willingness last year to undertake a 5 percent production cut if Russia did the same, but up until now Moscow never really took the idea seriously. On January 26, however, Russian oil executives met with Russian government officials in Moscow to discuss their predicament. Reuters reported that the meeting resulted in an openness, if not complete agreement, to begin talking with OPEC about cooperation.
There seems to be a newfound openness from many different oil producers to look at ways of stabilizing the market. Sub-$30 oil tends to do that. Iraq’s finance minister told Reuters on Wednesday that his country would be willing to participate in talks on production cuts. However, don’t get too excited. Shortly after the comments made from Russia’s energy minister, some OPEC officials shot down the speculation. Four OPEC officials said that they had no knowledge of a February meeting, insisting that the next OPEC summit was still scheduled for June.