Saudi Crown Prince Discusses OPEC+ Cooperation With Putin To Maintain Oil Market Stability

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday discussed the cooperation within the OPEC+ alliance to protect the stability of the oil market.

The phone conversation happened ahead of the virtual Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee Meeting (JMMC) on Wednesday.

"Further development of bilateral cooperation in the political, trade, economic and energy sectors, as well as cooperation within the OPEC Plus group to provide the stability of global oil market were discussed," announced Russia's official gazette Kremlin on Monday.

The phone call took place two days before the JMMC on Feb. 1, which will be attended by ministers and members of OPEC+. OPEC+ delegates told Reuters on Monday that the panel might decide to keep the OPEC+'s current output policy during the meeting.

Last week, other sources from OPEC+ also told the outlet that the JMMC discussion would center around economic prospects and magnitude of oil demand in China. The sources also hinted it was unlikely that the ministers would recommend amending the current policy, considering the rebound in oil prices in 2023.

"The boat is not really in stormy seas right now, so why rock something that's not moving?" said Saxo Bank's head of commodity strategy, Ole Hansen, Reuters reported.

Hansen added that the alliance might want to buy some time before tweaking the current policy due to the uncertainty associated with sanctions on Russia and how they might affect global oil supply.

It remains uncertain how the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia's oil industry over the war in Ukraine will impact supply. Adding to the uncertainty are the price caps imposed on Russian products in 2022, which were also a punishment to Russia for waging a war against the European country. As of this writing, Russian oil production has been resilient in the face of the sanctions, but it remains to be seen how long it will be able to keep up.

The OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee (JTC) was supposed to hold a meeting on Jan. 31 ahead of the JMMC but sources from the alliance revealed the meeting had been canceled.