OPEC secretary-general Abdalla el-Badri may visit Moscow soon to discuss cooperation between the oil producers’ group and Russia, currently the world’s biggest oil producer, a source in the Russian government said Monday.

The talks would address possible mutual steps to support oil prices, the source said. “Badri has sent a letter
[to Russia’s energy ministry] with a proposal to meet for the talks,” the source said, declining to give any dates for the possible visit.
On Sunday, Badri called for OPEC and non-OPEC countries to work together to help reduce oil supply. Oil prices of around $50/barrel are too low to guarantee investments in additional production capacity, and need to rise above $70/b if future supplies are to be guaranteed, he told Platts after talks in Algeria with Algerian oil minister Chakib Khelil.
Badri also said that Russia’s stated intention to help reduce crude supplies to international markets has so far remained a “declaration of intent that has resulted for the time in nothing concrete,” according to the state-run news agency Algerie Presse Service.
During the December OPEC meeting in Oran, Algeria, Russia’s deputy prime minister Igor Sechin said the country would support OPEC’s efforts to reduce supply by cutting its own oil supply by some 16 million mt, or 320,000 b/d, in 2009, if low oil prices persisted.
Market analysts, however, said at the time that the move would reflect a natural decline in the country’s output rather than any specific action to curb production.
(Source: petroleumworld.com)