“We proceed from the fact that the oil industry is private to a large extent… and is not controled by the state”, he said.
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Andrey Polischuk, oil and gas analyst at Raiffeisen Bank, said that key is USA shale oil production which is expensive to drill: “The most important trigger for this year is a possible drop in non-OPEC production, such producers have very high costs and now [prices] are too low for maintaining the current level of production”.
Oil prices jumped several percentage points on Thursday amid swirling speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is set to slash production.
Falling oil prices have caused the ruble to plunge to record lows, and Wednesday Nikolai Tokarev, head of Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, hinted there would be co-operation between the Russian Federation and OPEC producers.
Brent oil on Thursday rose as much 8.3 per cent after Mr Novak’s comments were reported before paring its advance to close at US$33.89 a barrel, a three-week high. An earlier version of this story incorrectly quoted the price at GBP30 a barrel. Saudi Arabia and Russian Federation both sharply raised their oil output in 2015, helping keep the market glutted and sending prices to fresh lows.
He said Saudi Arabia had proposed that oil producing countries cut output by up to five percent each.
“The talk of Russian Federation and OPEC maybe meeting and working out a production cut has made people think we’ve reached a bottom and it’s time to buy back in the market”, Lynch said. “With capital expenditure slashed and energy projects killed, a 5 per cent cut would get the market in balance”, said Mr Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at Price Futures Group.
Barclays stated on Thursday: “We remain highly sceptical that such a meeting will result in credible cuts in supply; thus, we see this as nothing more than an attempt to shift market sentiment, and we do not expect that it will change the physical market imbalance”.
Opec’s oil output rose to 32.6 million barrels per day in January from 32.31 million barrels in December, according to the survey, based on shipping data and information from sources at oil companies, Opec and consultants.
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Saudi officials did not immediately comment on the proposal, and a Gulf OPEC delegate said it came from Venezuela and Algeria. The International Energy Agency warned this month that further declines in oil prices are possible as the world risks “drowning in oversupply”, and demand fades amid slowing growth in China.
