Putin Discussed OPEC + Deal with Trump and Saudi King

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman Ben Abdel Aziz Al Saud. The topic of their conversation was the situation on the oil market, as well as the OPEC + agreement on oil production reduction. As Reuters reported, OPEC + countries have agreed to reduce production by 10 million barrels per day (barrels per day) since May. Donald Trump called the conversation good and said that OPEC + countries are close to concluding an agreement. According to the US president, the world produces too much oil, which accumulates in storages and "no one knows what to do with it." “We had a serious discussion about oil production and OPEC and about how to make the oil industry work better than it does now,” said Mr. Trump (quoted by Reuters). According to the Kremlin’s press service, the leaders of the three countries discussed the “situation in the oil markets”, including taking into account the negotiations within OPEC + and the upcoming video conference of the G20 energy ministers. Resulting from the conversation, the parties “reaffirmed their attitude to coordinate actions to stabilize the situation in the global oil trade and minimize the negative impact of volatility in oil prices on the world economy,” the Kremlin added. Recall, it is expected that under the new transaction, OPEC + countries will reduce production by 22% each. Then, according to the plan, it is considered to reduce the volume of production decline to 8 million barrels per day until the end of 2020 and up to 6 million barrels per day until April 2021.