Kremlin: No Energy Talks with Saudi Arabia

By Staff, Agencies 

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Thursday that Moscow and Riyadh have not started energy talks yet, and no negotiations between the countries' leaders are scheduled for Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently said that Russia and other oil exporters had to find a solution to mitigate the oil price drop.

"Nobody has mentioned any deals, even abstract ones, instead of OPEC+ yet. The energy markets, the oil markets were indeed discussed [by Putin] with Trump. Nobody is happy with this situation, as we have already said," Peskov said, when asked if there was any question of a new deal instead of OPEC+.

He further added that Putin speaks to Energy Minister Alexander Novak every day.

"Novak is daily on the phone with Putin, they speak on the phone every day, this is the routine communication," Peskov said.

On 1 April, US President Donald Trump said that he expects Russia and Saudi Arabia to settle their differences over oil production targets soon.

"I think that Russia and Saudi Arabia are going to make a deal in the future … I think they’re going to make a deal," Trump told reporters at the White House.

He added that he plans to have a meeting with oil companies and producers at the weekend.

The global energy market has been in turmoil, with oil prices reaching historical lows following the failure of the OPEC+ alliance to agree on production cuts in early March and also due to the economic recession linked to the Coronavirus pandemic.