Russian Energy Ministry to hold consultations with oil producers

BEIJING, November 7. /TASS/. Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak will hold consultations with Russian oil producers prior to the meeting of OPEC+ countries’ Ministers Monitoring Committee in Abu Dhabi on November 11 for assessing the situation on the oil market until the end of 2018 taking into account anti-Iran sanctions.

“There is no position yet, we are working at it with our companies,” he said when asked about Russia’s position prior to the Monitoring Committee’s meeting on November 11. “It is necessary to see how the predictive situation unfolds. It is necessary to project the demand in Q4 (2018) and Q1 (2019) and project the demand in other countries,” he said.

According to Novak, “the market is in the stage of a good balance” now considering the US’ decision to allow eight countries to import oil from Iran.

The US sanctions against Iran took force starting November 5. Earlier reports said that they aim at reducing the country’s oil exports to zero. However, the US authorities granted temporary waivers for eight countries, among them Greece, India, Italy, China, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. By various estimates, Iran’s oil export has already decreased by 1 mln barrels per day. It was at its highest level of 2.8 mln barrels per day in April 2018. Iran is OPEC’s third biggest oil producer.